Saint Hilarion, Vitae sanctorum, XIIe siècle
Saint Hilarion
Abbé à
Gaza (+ 372)
Sa vie a été écrite par saint Jérôme qui nous donne ainsi une très bonne esquisse biographique. Ses parents étaient païens. Très jeune, il découvrit Jésus-Christ. Pour mieux vivre l'évangile, il se retira au désert à 15 ans où sa seule lecture fut celle des Saintes Écritures. Des admirateurs le poursuivent, tant est grand son rayonnement. La foule veut l'empêcher de partir. Il commence une grève de la faim et, avec quarante moines, il se dirige vers Alexandrie, puis vers la Libye et la Sicile. Là encore, il est assiégé par "une multitude innombrable" d'admirateurs. Il gagne la Dalmatie et enfin Chypre où il peut passer les cinq dernières années de sa vie dans la solitude et la paix. Saint Jérôme cite de lui beaucoup de faits merveilleux et des paroles pleines de la Sagesse divine. Au moment de mourir dans la paix du Seigneur, il s'anima contre lui-même: "Il y a près de soixante-dix ans que tu sers Jésus-Christ. Et tu appréhendes encore la mort?"
À Chypre, vers 371, saint Hilarion, abbé. Marchant sur les traces de saint Antoine,
il mena d'abord près de Gaza une vie solitaire, puis fut, dans cette île, le
fondateur et le modèle de la vie érémitique.
Martyrologe romain
SOURCE : https://nominis.cef.fr/contenus/saint/2051/Saint-Hilarion.html
.jpg)
Hilarion
the Great, from the Menologion of Basil II, circa 985 (Vatican
Library)
العربية: القديس
هيلاريون العظيم. يوجد دير أثري باسمه في تل أم عامر في قطاع غزة، فلسطين.
Преподобный
Илларион. Константинополь. 985 г. Миниатюра
Минология Василия II. Ватиканская библиотека. Рим.
Saint Hilarion
Solitaire
(† 372)
Saint Hilarion naquit en
Égypte, de parents riches et païens. A quinze ans, éclairé des beautés de la
foi chrétienne, il reçut le Baptême et, tout épris du désir de la perfection,
courut au désert pour voir Antoine, dont le nom était déjà célèbre. A la vue du
patriarche du désert, il s'écria: "Et moi aussi, Dieu me veut
ermite!" Il vendit peu après le patrimoine de ses parents, qui venaient de
mourir, et s'enfonça dans la solitude.
Le démon, furieux de voir
un enfant égaler en ferveur les plus anciens anachorètes, lui déclara une
guerre acharnée; il employa tous les moyens: la crainte, les coups, la
séduction, les tableaux impurs, les apparitions d'animaux; l'ermite triompha de
tout en multipliant ses austérités.
Un jour pourtant,
Hilarion, chantant des psaumes, était distrait et ne priait que de bouche; le
démon, fier de cette légère faiblesse du Saint, lui sauta sur le dos et se
moqua de lui. Le solitaire s'humilia, pleura sa faute et profita de cette
négligence pour redoubler d'ardeur au service du Seigneur. Cet homme, qui avait
tant à souffrir du démon, reçut de Dieu le pouvoir de se venger de lui; on
amenait de toutes parts des possédés à Hilarion, qui les délivrait des malins
esprits.
Cependant, les foules
accourant vers lui, attirées par sa réputation de sainteté, le Saint regretta
sa solitude primitive: "Je reçois, s'écria-t-il, ma récompense ici bas; il
faut aller me cacher pour prier et souffrir, si je veux me rendre digne de la
miséricorde de Dieu." Quand il voulut partir, plus de dix mille personnes
l'arrêtèrent par leurs larmes et leurs gémissements. Il réussit pourtant à
s'échapper, mais le désert fleurissait sous ses pas, l'enthousiasme des foules
le suivait partout.
Le Seigneur, prenant
pitié de ses larmes, l'avertit de sa mort prochaine. Hilarion s'étendit sur une
natte: "Sors, mon âme, dit-il, sors de ton corps, brise les derniers
liens. Pourquoi tarder encore? Il y bientôt soixante ans que tu sers le Christ,
peux-tu craindre la mort?" Et il rendit l'esprit. Digne émule du grand
saint Antoine, il a mérité le titre de Patriarche des solitaires de la
Palestine.
Abbé L. Jaud, Vie
des Saints pour tous les jours de l'année, Tours, Mame, 1950
SOURCE : http://magnificat.ca/cal/fr/saints/saint_hilarion.html
Ehemalige Stiftskirche Notre-Dame-de-Roscudon in Pont-Croix im Département Finistère (Region Bretagne/Frankreich), Bleiglasfenster mit der Signatur Küchelbecker et Jacquier Le Mans 1886, registre supérieur : Comment Saint Hilarion rend l’usage de ses membres à un payan, registre inférieur : Comment Saint Hilarion est tenté par le démon
SAINT HILARION
Hilarion fut un saint
moine, dont la vie pleine de bonnes oeuvres a été écrite par saint Jérôme. Ses
parents étaient idolâtres, mais il fleurit comme on dirait d'une rose au milieu
des épines. Envoyé à Alexandrie pour étudier la grammaire, il y reçut le
baptême, et toute sa joie était de se trouver dans les assemblées des fidèles.
Avant entendu parler de saint Antoine, il alla en Égypte pour le voir. Aussitôt
après il changea d'habits et demeura près de deux mois auprès de lui, observant
avec grand soin sa manière de vivre et la gravité de ses moeurs, son assiduité
à la prière, son humilité à recevoir ses frères, sa sévérité à les reprendre et
sa gaieté à les exhorter. Ses mortifications étaient tellement grandes
qu'aucune maladie ne put lui faire modifier la grossièreté des mets dont il
usait. Hilarion, après s'être exercé dans la pratique, de ces vertus, revint
dans sa patrie avec quelques moines. Ses parents étaient morts, et il partagea
son bien entre (509) ses frères et les pauvres, sans garder absolument rien
pour soi, Il avait alors 15 ans et il entra au désert couvert seulement d'un
sac et n'emporta avec lui qu'une sale de paysan que le bienheureux Antoine lui
avait donnée lorsqu'il prit congé de lui. Il se contentait de manger quinze
figues sauvages après le coucher, du soleil. De 15 à 20 ans, il n'eut pour se
défendre contre le chaud et la pluie qu'une petite cabane qu'il avait tressée
avec du jonc et des branches de figuier. Depuis il fit une petite cellule large
de 4 pieds et haute de 5, en sorte que vous l’auriez prise plutôt pour un
sépulcre que pour une habitation. Il ne coupait ses cheveux qu'une fois
l’année, le jour de Pâques: Il coucha jusqu'à sa mort sur la terre dure. Il ne
lava jamais, ni ne changea le sac qui le couvrait que quand il était en pièces.
Sachant toute l’Écriture sainte par cœur, après qu'il avait fait oraison, il
chantait les psaumes comme si Dieu eut été présent. Depuis 21 jusqu'à 27 ans,
il ne mangea autre chose les trais premières années qu'un demi-septier de
lentilles trempées dans l’eau froide, et durant les trois autres an nées, du
pain seulement avec du sel et de l’eau. Depuis 27 ans jusqu'à 30, il ne vécut
que d'herbes sauvages et de racines crues de quelques arbrisseaux. Depuis 31
ans jusqu'à 35 il ne mangea qu'une once de pain et un peu d'herbes cuites sans
huile. Mais sentant s'obscurcir ses yeux, et étant tourmenté d'une gratelle qui
lui donnait une violente démangeaison par tout le corps, il ajouta un peu
d'huile à ce que je viens de dire, et continua jusqu'à 63 ans à vivre dans
cette abstinence, ne goûtant, outre cela, ni d'aucun fruit, ni d'aucun légume,
ni de chose quelconque qu'il lui eût été agréable de manger. Alors voyant que
son corps s'exténuait et croyant que sa mort était proche, il ne mangea plus de
pain depuis 64 ans jusqu'à 80. Sa ferveur était si incroyable qu'il semblait
qu'il venait d'entrer dans le service de Dieu en un âge où les autres ont
accoutumé de diminuer leurs austérités. On lui faisait un breuvage avec de la
farine et très peu d'huile, tout son boire et son manger pesant à peine cinq
onces. Il continua, jusqu'à sa mort, en cette manière de vivre, ne mangeant
jamais qu'après le soleil couché, et ne rompant jamais son jeûne, ni aux jours
de fête, ni dans ses plus grandes maladies. Après avoir, été très puissant en
miracles, et incomparable de sainteté, à l’âge de 80 ans, Esychius étant absent
(c'était son vieil ami), il lui écrivit de sa main une petite lettre, qui était
comme son testament, par laquelle il lui laissait toutes ses richesses, qui
consistaient en ce sac qui lui servait de tunique, une cape et un petit
manteau. Il avait encore un peu de chaleur, et c'était à peine s'il vivait
quand il ouvrit les yeux et dit : « Sors, mon âme, que crains-tu? Sors, de quoi
as-tu peur? Tu as servi J.-C. près de 70 ans, et tu crains la mort? » En
achevant ces paroles, il rendit l’esprit, et à l’instant on le mit en terre. Il
avait demandé lui-même à tous ceux qui étaient venus le, voir dans sa maladie
de ne pas garder son corps un moment après son trépas. Dix, mois après, le sain
homme Esychius déroba au périple sa vie, le corps d'Hilarion et le transporta
en Palestine pour l’enterrer dans un monastère avec sa tunique, sa coule et son
manteau. Tout son corps aussi entier que s'il eût été vivant, répandait une
odeur si excellente qu'il semblait avoir été embaumé avec les parfums les plus
précieux, en témoignage de sa très sainte vie et en l’honneur éternel et gloire
de Dieu qui vit et règne dans les siècles. On fait mémoire de sa fête le 12 des
calendes de novembre, le jour où l’on célèbre la fête des onze mille vierges et
de sainte Ursule.
La Légende dorée de Jacques de Voragine nouvellement traduite en
français avec introduction, notices, notes et recherches sur les sources par
l'abbé J.-B. M. Roze, chanoine honoraire de la Cathédrale d'Amiens, Édouard
Rouveyre, éditeur, 76, rue de Seine, 76, Paris mdccccii
SOURCE : http://www.abbaye-saint-benoit.ch/voragine/tome03/187.htm
21/10 St Hilarion, abbé
Dans sa vie de St
Hilarion, évrite entre 386 et 391, St Jérôme le présente comme le père du
monachisme palestinien. Fêté ce jour en Orient, il fêté à Rome à partir du
XIIème siècle.
Leçon des Matines (avant
1960)
Troisième leçon. Hilarion, né de parents infidèles, à Tabathe, en Palestine, fut envoyé à Alexandrie pour ses études et s’y distingua par sa vertu et ses talents. Ayant embrassé la religion chrétienne, il fit de merveilleux progrès dans la foi et la charité. II se rendait fréquemment à l’église, jeûnait et priait assidûment, méprisait tous les attraits de la volupté et les désirs des biens terrestres. Le nom de saint Antoine étant très célèbre en Égypte, Hilarion se dirigea vers le désert afin de le voir, et pendant les deux mois qu’il passa auprès de lui, il étudia tout son genre de vie. Revenant en sa demeure, ses parents étaient décédés et il distribua ses biens aux pauvres. Sans avoir encore achevé sa quinzième année, il retourna dans la solitude, où il se bâtit une étroite cabane, qui pouvait à peine le contenir ; là, le sol lui servait de couche. Quant au sac dont il se couvrit, jamais il ne voulut le laver ou le changer, disant qu’il était superflu de chercher la propreté dans un cilice. Il donnait beaucoup de temps à la lecture et à la méditation des saintes Lettres. Il vivait de quelques figues et du suc des herbes, et il les prenait seulement après le coucher du soleil. Sa chasteté était parfaite, son humilité extraordinaire. Par ces vertus et d’autres encore, il surmonta diverses tentations horribles du diable, et chassa les démons du corps d’une infinité de personnes en différentes contrées du monde. Après avoir bâti plusieurs monastères et s’être illustré par beaucoup de miracles, il tomba malade, âgé de quatre-vingts ans. La violence du mal l’ayant réduit à l’extrémité, il disait : Sors, que crains-tu ? Sors, ô mon âme, pourquoi hésiter ? Tu as servi le Christ près de soixante-dix ans et tu crains la mort ? Ces mots prononcés, il expira.
SOURCE : http://www.introibo.fr/21-10-St-Hilarion-abbe
Saint Hilarion le Grand
Saint Hilarion le Grand est né en l'an 291 dans le village palestinien de Tabatha. Il a été envoyé à Alexandrie pour étudier. Là, il fait la connaissance avec le Christianisme et fut baptisé. Après avoir entendu un compte rendu de la vie angélique de saint Antoine le Grand (17 janvier), Hilarion alla à sa rencontre, désirant étudier avec lui et d'apprendre ce qui est agréable à Dieu. Hilarion revint bientôt à sa terre natale pour découvrir que ses parents étaient morts. Après la distribution de l'héritage de sa famille pour les pauvres, Hilarion a énoncée dans le désert entourant la ville de Maium.
Dans le désert, le Moine a lutté intensément avec des pensées impures, des vexations de l'esprit et les passions brûlantes de la chair, mais il les a vaincus avec des travaux lourds, le jeûne et la prière fervente. Le diable a cherché à effrayer le Saint avec des fantômes et les apparitions. Au cours de la prière de saint Hilarion entendu des enfants pleurer, gémir les femmes, le rugissement des lions et autres bêtes sauvages. Le moine comprit que c'était les démons responsables de ces terreurs, afin de le chasser du désert. Il a surmonté sa peur avec l'aide de la prière fervente. Une fois, les voleurs tomba sur Saint-Hilarion, et il les a persuadés d'abandonner leur vie de la criminalité grâce à la puissance de ses paroles.
Bientôt toute la Palestine a appris au sujet du saint Ascète. Le Seigneur a accordé à Saint-Hilarion le pouvoir de chasser les esprits impurs. Grâce à ce don de la grâce, il délié les liens de bon nombre des affligés. Le malade est venu pour la guérison, et le moine guéri à titre gratuit, en disant que la grâce de Dieu n'est pas à vendre (MT 10:8).
Telle était la grâce
qu'il a reçue de Dieu qu'il ne pouvait dire par l'odeur du corps de quelqu'un
ou de vêtements dont la passion affligait son âme. Ils sont venus à
Saint-Hilarion à vouloir sauver leur âme, sous sa direction. Avec la
bénédiction de saint Hilarion, monastères ont commencé à surgir dans toute la
Palestine. Allant de l'un monastère à l'autre, il a institué une manière
rigoureuse de vie ascétique.
Environ sept ans avant sa
mort (+ 371-372) Saint-Hilarion est retourné à Chypre, où l'ascète a vécu dans
un lieu solitaire jusqu'à ce que le Seigneur l'appela à lui-même.
Profile
Raised in a pagan family. Converted to Christianity while studying at Alexandria, Egypt as
a teenager. Studied with Saint Anthony
the Great in the Egyptian desert
in 306.
He then gave away his wealth, and introduced the eremitical life
in the Gaza region of Palestine.
Supported himself by weaving baskets. Founded several monasteries in Palestine.
Noted for his ascetic life; for years he ate but 15 figs a day. Miracle worker
whose fame attracted unwanted crowds; to escape the people, including his most
dedicated student Saint Hesychius,
the notoriety, and the persecutions of Julian
the Apsotate, he lived on Mount Sinai, in Egypt,
in Sicily,
in Dalmatia,
on Paphos, and Cyprus.
Born
371 at Cyprus of
natural causes
Additional
Information
A
Garner of Saints, by Allen Banks Hinds, M.A.
Book
of Saints, by the Monks of
Ramsgate
Life
of Saint Hilarion, by Saint Jerome
Lives
of the Saints, by Father Alban
Butler
Lives
of the Saints, by Father Francis
Xavier Weninger
Saints
of the Day, by Katherine Rabenstein
books
Our Sunday Visitor’s Encyclopedia of Saints
Oxford Dictionary of Saints, by David Hugh Farmer
Saints
and Their Attributes, by Helen Roeder
other
sites in english
images
audio
Life of Saint Hilarion, by Saint Jerome (librivox
audio book)
video
sitios
en español
Martirologio Romano, 2001 edición
fonti
in italiano
Ilarione
il Santo Vissuto a Cava d’Ispica
MLA
Citation
‘Saint Hilarion of
Gaza‘. CatholicSaints.Info. 27 December 2023. Web. 9 December 2025.
<https://catholicsaints.info/saint-hilarion-of-gaza/>
SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/saint-hilarion-of-gaza/
Saints
Joasaph and Hilarion Icon. Trinity Lavra of Saint Sergiy.
(Saint) Abbot (October
21) (4th century) One of the best known Palestinian Solitaries. Born near Gaza
of Pagan parents, about A.D. 292, while quite young, he sought and received
Baptism, and afterwards repaired to visit Saint Antony in Egypt. On his return
to Palestine, finding his parents dead, he distributed his whole fortune to the
poor and retired into the wilderness on the borders of Egypt, being even then
only fifteen years old. From that time till his death at the age of eighty, he
practised most severe abstinence, eating only each day a few herbs and a small
piece of bread. Overcoming the Evil One in many a hard fight, he was graced in
an eminent degree with the gift of miracles, more especially for the
deliverance of those obsessed by the devil. Disciples soon flocked around him,
and he then founded many monasteries in various parts of Palestine. In A.D. 357
he visited the tomb of Saint Antony, who had just passed away, and afterwards,
to escape from the crowds who continually thronged about him seeking the cure
of their maladies, he kept travelling from country to country. He visited
Egypt, Sicily, Dalmatia, and finally Cyprus, where he died A.D. 371. Saint
Hilarion is commemorated annually in the Liturgies of both the Eastern and the
Western Churches.
MLA
Citation
Monks of Ramsgate.
“Hilarion”. Book of Saints, 1921. CatholicSaints.Info.
3 September 2013. Web. 9 December 2025.
<https://catholicsaints.info/book-of-saints-hilarion/>
SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/book-of-saints-hilarion/
St. Hilarion
Feastday: October 21
Birth: 291
Death: 371
Abbot and disciple of
St. Anthony the Great, companion of St. Hesychius. He was born in Tabatha,
Palestine, and was educated in Alexandria, Egypt. He stayed with St. Anthony in
the desert there
before becoming a hermit at Majuma, near Gaza, Israel. In 356, Hilarion
returned to St. Anthony in the Egyptian desert and
found that his fame had Spread there too. He fled to Sicily to
escape notice, but Hesychius traced him there. The two went to Dalmatia,
Croatia, and then to Cyprus. Hilarion performed so many miracles that crowds
flocked to him when it was discovered he was in any region. He died on Cyprus,
and St.
Hesychius secretly took his remains back to Palestine. His cult is now
confined to local calendars.
SOURCE : https://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=659
Vincent de Beauvais, « Saint Hilarion et les démons tentateurs », Speculum historiale, XVe siècle
St. Hilarion
St. Hilarion was born in
a village called Tabatha, to the south of Gaza, his parents being idolaters. He
was sent by them to Alexandria to study, where, being brought to the knowledge
of the Christian faith, he was baptized when he was about fifteen. Having heard
of St. Anthony, he went into the desert to see him, and stayed with him two
months, observing his manner of life.
But Hilarion found the
desert only less distracting than the town, and, not being able to bear the
concourse of those who resorted to Anthony to be healed of diseases or
delivered from devils, and being desirous to begin to serve God in perfect
solitude, he returned into his own country. Finding his father and mother both
dead, he gave part of his goods to his brethren and the rest to the poor, reserving
nothing for himself. He retired into the desert seven miles from Majuma,
towards Egypt, between the seashore on one side and a swamp on the other. His
clothing consisted only of a sackcloth shirt, a leather tunic which St. Anthony
gave him, and an ordinary short cloak. He never changed a tunic until it was
worn out and never washed the sackcloth which he had once put on.
For food he ate only
fifteen figs a day, which he never took till sunset. His occupation was tilling
the earth and making baskets, whereby he provided himself with the necessaries
of life. He built himself a cell, that was four feet broad and five in height,
and a little longer than his body, like a tomb rather than a house. Soon he
found that figs alone were insufficient to support life properly and permitted
himself to eat as well vegetables, bread and oil.
While in isolation, he
frequently suffered extreme temptations by visions which he identified as
demons. He heard voices of infants or of domestic animals, and had visions of naked
women, voluptuous meals, chariots and gladiatorial contests
St. Hilarion was informed
by revelation in 356 of the death of St. Anthony. He was then about sixty-five
years old, and had been long afflicted at the number of people, especially
women, who crowded to him; moreover, the charge of his disciples was a great
burden. So he resolved to leave Palestine, and the people assembled in great
numbers to stop him. He told them he would neither eat nor drink till they let
him go; and seeing him pass seven days without taking anything, they left him.
He then chose some monks
who were able to walk without eating till after sunset, and with them he
travelled into Egypt and at length came to St. Anthony’s mountain, near the Red
Sea, where they found two monks who had been his disciples, On the top of the mountain
(to which the ascent was very difficult, twisting like a vine) they found two
cells to which St. Anthony often retired to avoid visitors and even his own
disciples. St Hilarion asked to see the place where he was buried. They led him
aside, but they said that St. Anthony had given strict charge that his grave
should be concealed, lest a certain rich man in that country should carry the
body away and build a church for it.
St Hilarion returned to
Aphroditopolis (Atfiah), and thence went into a neighboring desert and gave
himself with more earnestness than ever to abstinence and silence. Finding
himself too popular also in that place, St. Hilarion spent a year in an oasis
of the western desert. But finding that he was too well known ever to lie concealed
in Egypt, he determined to seek some remote island and embarked with one
companion for Sicily. From Cape Passaro they travelled twenty miles up the
country and stopped in an unfrequented place. St. Hesychius, the saint’s
disciple, sought him in the East and through Greece when, at Modon in
Peloponnesus, he heard from a Jewish pedlar that a prophet had appeared in
Sicily who wrought many miracles. He arrived at Passaro and, inquiring for the
holy man at the first village, found that everybody knew him: he was not more
distinguished by his miracles than by his disinterestedness, for he could never
be induced to accept anything from anyone.
He found that St Hilarion
wanted to go into some country where not even his language should be
understood, and so St. Hesychius took him to Epidaurus in Dalmatia {Modern
Croatia). Miracles again defeated the saint’s design of living unknown. St
Hilarion, troubled over what he should do or where he should turn, going alone
over the world in his imagination, mourned that though his tongue was silent
yet his miracles spoke.
At last he fled away in
the night in a small vessel to Cyprus. Arrived there, he settled at a place two
mites from Paphos. He had not been there long when his identity was discovered,
so he went a dozen miles inland to an inaccessible but pleasant place, where he
at last found peace and quietness. Here after a few years Hilarion died at the
age of eighty; among those who visited him in his last illness was St
Epiphanius, Bishop of Salamis, who afterwards wrote about his life to St
Jerome. He was buried near Paphos, but St Hesychius secretly removed the body
to the saint’s old home at Majuma.
SOURCE : http://www.ucatholic.com/saints/saint-hilarion/
Hilarion of Gaza, Abbot
(RM)
Born in Tabatha (south of Gaza), c. 291; died 371. Saint Hilarion, whose life
is written by Saint Jerome, was born to pagan parents. At the age of 15, while
studying at Alexandria, the great center of culture and learning, he was
converted to Christianity and baptized.
Shortly afterwards he
travelled to the Thebaid to see Saint Antony of the Desert and after staying
with him for two months returned to Gaza, where he found that his parents had
died during his absence. He divided his inheritance among his brothers and the
poor; then, free of all worldly ties, he returned to the desert where with the
grace of God to help him, he struggled against the devil and the temptations of
his body.
For the next few years he
lived a life of prayer, asceticism and solitude. His place of retreat was on a
low-lying and marshy island near the sea, about 6 or 7 miles from Majuma
(Maiuma). His only shelter was a hut of woven reeds and rushes. Later, when he
built a cell, it was barely large enough to house him. He cut his hair only
once a year, at Easter, and lived off a few figs and vegetables that he grew in
a small garden.
Austere though his life
was, it soon attracted a large number of disciples who came to live near him,
while the miracles that he performed also drew crowds of sick people hoping for
cures. Many heathen were converted to Christianity by his exhortations and
example, and by the miracles attributed to him: of these, his enabling one
Italicus to win a chariot race must have made a special appeal to the backers
of Italicus.
Until he was 65 years
old, Hilarion continued to live at Majuma, baptizing those who came to him and
preaching less by words than by the example of his life. However, the feeling
grew on him that his work there had been done and that they could manage
without him. "I have returned to the world and am receiving my reward in
this life," he said. "If I wish to be found deserving of divine
mercy, I must hide myself to pray and suffer."
His disciples and the
thousands of people who gathered round him at first refused to let him go.
Hilarion refused to eat so long as they held him a virtual prisoner, and after
a fast which lasted a week he was allowed to go.
Around 360 he left Majuma
for Egypt. Accompanied by forty anchorites he first visited the tomb of Saint
Antony in the Thebaid, where once again many miracles were performed.
The remaining years of
Saint Hilarion's life were a pathetic--and perhaps somewhat neurotic--quest for
solitude. He was harassed in Egypt and, Julian the Apostate having ordered his
arrest, he had to flee to the Libyan desert.
Soon he decided to move
on, this time with only two companions. Seeking silence and obscurity, he
crossed the sea to Sicily, hoping that no one would there recognize him. Here,
earning his bread by collecting and selling firewood, the old man was found by
one of his early disciples, Hesychius. His fame soon spread and he was sought
out by pilgrims and by the sick.
Hilarion soon became
restless again, and Hesychius tried to satisfy him by taking him to Epidaurus
(Dubrovnik) on the Dalmatian coast, where no one had heard of Hilarion. But the
same thing happened again, and so under cover of night he and Hesychius crossed
from Dalmatia to Cyprus, where he settled at Paphos. However miracles still
followed him. Demoniacs, sick people and crowds of the faithful and the curious
came to visit him until, with the help of his disciple Hesychius, he found an
inaccessible retreat high on a mountain, where he remained for the rest of his
life.
When he felt that he was
about to die, Hilarion wrote to Hesychius and made him the heir of his Gospel
and his short cloak--the sum total of his possessions. He died in 372, at the
age of 80, and was at first buried near Paphos, but Hesychius secretly removed
his body and re-buried it at Majuma, the site of his first miracles and of his
victory over himself (Attwater, Encyclopedia, Walsh).
In art Hilarion is
portrayed as an old hermit mounted on an ass, driving off the devil, dragon, or
basilisk with the sign of the Cross. Sometimes Hilarion is shown (1) with a
pile of wood near him; (2) clothed in skins; (3) holding an hourglass; or (4)
with a book inscribed Quid est o anima mea quid dubitas. He is venerated in
Cyprus and Sicily (Roeder).
SOURCE : http://www.saintpatrickdc.org/ss/1021.shtml
New Catholic
Dictionary – Saint Hilarion
Abbot,
born Tabatha, near Gaza, Palestine, c.291; died Paphos,
island of Cyprus, 371.
While studying at Alexandria he
was converted to Christianity;
he visited Saint Anthony
in the desert, and stayed with him for two months. Returning to
Palestine, 307,
and finding both his parents dead,
he distributed his wealth among the poor, and retired to a little hut in the
desert of Majuma near Gaza, where he lived as a hermit.
He fasted rigorously, for six years taking only fifteen figs a day which he ate
at sunset, and supported himself by weaving baskets. The miraculous cures and
exorcisms which he effected attracted numerous disciples to him, 329.
He returned to Egypt, 360,
to seek greater solitude, journeyed to Sicily and for some time lived as an
anchorite near Pachinum; but his disciples discovered his retreat and again
surrounded him. He went then to Dalmatia, and later to the island of Cyprus
where he spent the remaining years of his life. Hilarion is honored as the
founder of the anchoritic life
in Palestine. Relics at Majuma. Feast,
Roman Calendar, 21
October.
MLA
Citation
“Saint Hilarion”. New Catholic Dictionary. CatholicSaints.Info.
31 July 2013. Web. 9 December 2025.
<https://catholicsaints.info/new-catholic-dictionary-saint-hilarion/>
SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/new-catholic-dictionary-saint-hilarion/
Encyclopedia
Britannica – Saint Hilarion
Saint Hilarion
(c.290–371), abbot, the first to introduce the monastic system into Palestine.
The chief source of information is a life written by Saint Jerome; it was based
upon a letter, no longer extant, written by Saint Epiphanius, who had known
Hilarion. The accounts in Sozomen are mainly based on Jerome’s Vita; but Otto
Zöcker has shown that Sozomen also had at his disposal authentic local
traditions, the most important study on Hilarion, which is written against the
hypercritical school of Weingarten and shows that Hilarion must be accepted as
an historical personage and the Vita as a substantially correct account of his
career. He was born of heathen parents at Tabatha near Gaza about 290; he was
sent to Alexandria for his education and there became a convert to
Christianity; about 306 he visited Saint Anthony and became his disciple,
embracing the eremitical life. He returned to his native place and for many
years lived as a hermit in the desert by the marshes on the Egyptian border.
Many disciples put themselves under his guidance; but his influence must have
been limited to south Palestine, for there is no mention of him in Palladius or
Cassian. In 356 he left Palestine and went again to Egypt; but the accounts
given in the Vita of his travels during the last fifteen years of his life must
be taken with extreme caution. It is there said that he went from Egypt to
Sicily, and thence to Epidaurus, and finally to Cyprus where he met Epiphanius
and died in 371.
MLA
Citation
Edward Cuthbert Butler.
“Saint Hilarion”. Encyclopedia Britannica, 1911. CatholicSaints.Info.
18 January 2020. Web. 9 December 2025.
<https://catholicsaints.info/encyclopedia-britannica-saint-hilarion/>
SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/encyclopedia-britannica-saint-hilarion/
St. Hilarion
Founder of anchoritic life in
Palestine; born at Tabatha, south of Gaza,
Palestine, about 291; died in the island of Cyprus about
371. The chief source of information regarding him is the biography written
by St.
Jerome (P.L. XXIII, 29-54). In the
introduction Jerome mentions a letter from St.
Epiphanius, Archbishop of Salamis,
in regard to the life of Hilarion
whom Epiphanius had known personally during the hermit's later
years. The letter is not extant. A newly discovered life has been
edited by Papadopulos-Kerameus (Analekta Ierosolymikes Stachyologias,
V, 1898). Some special circumstances regarding Hilarion are related by
the ecclesiastical
historian, Sozomen,
from oral traditions handed down by Hilarion's disciples;
among others that Sozomen's grandfather
and another relative were converted to Christianity by
Hilarion (Church
History V.15).
Hilarion was the son
of pagan parents.
The date of his birth is ascertained from the statement
of Jerome (Vita, c. xxv), that Hilarion, at the death
of Anthony (356), was 65 years old. As a boy Hilarion's parents sent
him to Alexandria to be educated in
its schools.
Here he became a Christian,
and at the age of fifteen, attracted by the renown of the anchorite, St.
Anthony, he retired to the desert.
After two months of personal intercourse with the great "Father of
Anchorites", Hilarion resolved to devote himself to
the ascetic life of a hermit.
He returned home, divided his fortune among the poor,
and then withdrew to a little hut in the desert of Majuma,
near Gaza,
where he led a life similar to that of St. Anthony. His clothing consisted
of a hair shirt, an upper garment of skins, and a short shepherd's cloak;
he fasted rigorously,
not partaking of his frugal meal until after sunset, and supported himself by
weaving baskets. The greater part of his time was devoted
to religious exercises. Miraculous cures
and exorcisms
of demons which he performed spread his fame in the surrounding
country, so that in 329 numerous disciples assembled round him.
Many heathens were converted,
and people came to seek his help and counsel in such great numbers that he
could hardly find time to perform his religious duties.
This induced him to bid farewell to his disciples and to return
to Egypt about
the year 360. Here he visited the places where St. Anthony had lived
and the spot where he had died. On the journey thither, he
met Dracontius and Philor, two bishops banished
by the Emperor Constantius. Hilarion then went to dwell
at Bruchium, near Alexandria,
but hearing that Julian
the Apostate had ordered his arrest, he retired to an oasis in the
Libyan desert.
Later on he journeyed to Sicily and
for a long time lived as a hermit near
the promontory of Pachinum. His disciple, Hesychius, who had long
sought him, discovered him here and soon Hilarion saw himself again surrounded
by disciples desirous of following his holy example.
Leaving Sicily,
he went to Epidaurus in Dalmatia,
where, on the occasion of a great earthquake (366), he rendered valuable
assistance to the inhabitants. Finally he went to Cyprus and
there, in a lonely cave in the interior of the island, he spent his last years.
It was during his sojourn in Cyprus that
he became acquainted with St.
Epiphanius, Archbishop of Salamis.
Before his death, which took place at the age of eighty, Hilarion bequeathed
his only possession, his poor and scanty clothing, to
his faithful disciple, Hesychius. His body
was buried near the town of Paphos,
but Hesychius secretly took it away and carried it
to Majuma where the saint had
lived so long. Hilarion was greatly honored as the founder of anchoritic life in
Palestine. His feast falls on 21 October. The attempts of Israel and
of other historians to relegate Hilarion to the realm of imagination have
completely failed; there can be no doubt as
to the historical fact of his life and the truth of
its chief features.
Sources
ST. JEROME, Vita S.
Hilarionis in P.L., III, 29-54; Acta SS., October, IX, 43-59; ISRAEL,
Die Vita S. Hilarionis des Hieronymus in Zeitschrift fur wissenschaftl.
Theol. (1880), 129 sqq.; ZOCKLER, Hilarion von Gaza, eine Rettung in Neue
Jahrbucher fur deutsche Theologie (1894), 147 sqq.; GRUTZMACHER, Hieronymus,
II (Berlin, 1906), 87-91; VAN DEN VEN, S. Jérome et la vie du moine Malchus
(Louvain, 1901), appendixes; WINTER, Der literarische Charakter der Vita
S. Hilarionis (Zittau, 1904); SERVIERES, Histoire de S. Hilarion (Rodez,
1884); HEIMBUCHER, Die Orden und Kongregationen der kathol. Kirche, I (2nd
ed., Paderborn, 1907), 115 sq.
Kirsch, Johann Peter. "St. Hilarion." The Catholic
Encyclopedia. Vol. 7. New York: Robert Appleton
Company, 1910. 21 Oct.
2015 <http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07347a.htm>.
Transcription. This
article was transcribed for New Advent by Herman F. Holbrook. Benedictus
Deus in sanctis suis.
Ecclesiastical
approbation. Nihil Obstat. June 1, 1910. Remy Lafort, S.T.D.,
Censor. Imprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York.
Copyright © 2023 by Kevin Knight.
Dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
SOURCE : http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07347a.htm
Dominique Papety (1815–1849), Tentation
de Saint Hilarion, circa 1843, 50.5 x 64.6, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts - Salon
of 1844, Salon Carré
St. Hilarion, Abbot
[First institutor of the Monastic State in the East.]
HILARION was
born in a little town called Tabatha, five miles to the south of Gaza; he
sprang like a rose out of thorns, his parents being idolaters. He was sent by
them very young to Alexandria to study grammar, when, by his progress in
learning, he gave great proofs of his wit, for which, and his good temper and
dispositions, he was exceedingly beloved by all who knew him. Being brought to
the knowledge of the Christian faith he was baptized, and became immediately a
new man, renouncing all the mad sports of the circus, and the entertainments of
the theatre, and taking no delight but in the churches and assemblies of the
faithful. Having heard of St. Antony, whose name was famous in Egypt, he went
into the desert to see him. Moved by the example of his virtue, he changed his
habit, and staid with him two months, observing his manner of life, his fervour
in prayer, his humility in receiving his brethren, his severity in reproving
them, his earnestness in exhorting them, and his perseverance in austerities;
but not being able to bear the frequent concourse of those who resorted to St.
Antony to be healed of diseases or delivered from devils, and being desirous to
begin to serve God like St. Antony in perfect solitude, he returned with
certain monks into his own country. Upon his arrival there, finding his father
and mother both dead, he gave part of his goods to his brethren, and the rest
to the poor, reserving nothing for himself. He was then but fifteen years of
age, this happening about the year 307. He retired into a desert seven miles
from Majuma, towards Egypt, between the sea-shore on one side, and certain fens
on the other. His friends forewarned him that the place was notorious for
murders and robberies; but his answer was, that he feared nothing but eternal
death. Everybody admired his fervour, and extraordinary manner of life. In the
beginning of his retirement certain robbers who lurked in those deserts asked
him, what he would do if thieves and assassins came to him? He answered: “The
poor and naked fear no thieves.” “But they may kill you,” said they. “It is
true,” said the holy man, “and for this very reason I am not afraid of them,
because it is my endeavour to be always prepared for death.” So great fervour
and resolution in one so young and so tender as our saint, was both surprising
and edifying to all who knew him. His constitution was so weak and delicate
that the least excess of heat or cold affected him very sensibly; yet his whole
clothing consisted only of a piece of sackcloth, a leather coat, which St.
Antony gave him, and an ordinary short cloak. Living in solitude he thought
himself at liberty to practise certain mortifications, which the respect we owe
to our neighbour makes unseasonable in the world. He cut his hair only once a
year, against Easter; never changed any coat till it was worn out, and never
washed the sackcloth which he had once put on, saying: “It is idle to look for
neatness in a hair shirt.”
At his first entering on this penitential life he renounced the use of bread;
and for six years together his whole diet was fifteen figs a day, which he
never took till sunset. When he felt the attacks of any temptation of the
flesh, being angry with himself, and beating his breast he would say to his
body: “I will take order, thou little ass, that thou shalt not kick; I will
feed thee with straw instead of corn; and will load and weary thee, that so
thou mayest think rather how to get a little bit to eat than of pleasure.” He
then retrenched part of his scanty meal, and sometimes fasted three or four
days without eating; and when after this he was fainting, he sustained his body
only with a few dried figs, and the juice of herbs. At the same time praying
and singing he would be breaking the ground with a rake, that his labour might
add to the trouble of his fasting. His employment was digging or tilling the
earth, or, in imitation of the Egyptian monks, weaving small twigs together
with great rushes in making baskets, whereby he provided himself with the
frugal necessaries of life. When he felt himself weary, and ready to faint with
labour, he said to his body, while he took his little refection of figs or some
wild herbs: “If thou wilt not labour, thou shalt not eat; and seeing thou
eatest now, prepare thyself again to work.” He knew a great part of the holy
scripture by heart, and always recited some parts of it after he had said many
psalms and prayers; he prayed with as great attention and reverence as if he
had seen with his eyes our Lord present with whom he spoke. During the first
four years of his penance he had no other shelter from the inclemencies of the
weather than a little hovel or arbour which he made himself of reeds and rushes
which he found in a neighbouring marsh, and which he had woven together.
Afterwards he built himself a little cell which was still to be seen in St.
Jerom’s time: it was but four feet broad, and five in height; and was a little
longer than the extent of his body, so that a person would have rather taken it
for a grave than a house. During the course of his penance he made some
alteration in his diet, but never in favour of his appetites. From the age of
twenty-one, he for three years lived on a measure which was little more than
half a pint of pulse, steeped in cold water, a-day; and for the three next
years his whole food was dry bread with salt and water. From his twenty-seventh
year to his thirty-first he ate only wild herbs and raw roots; and from
thirty-one to thirty-five, he took for his daily food six ounces of barley
bread a-day, to which he added a few kitchen herbs, but half boiled, and
without oil. But perceiving his sight to grow dim, and his body to be subject
to an itching, with an unnatural kind of scurf and roughness, he added a little
oil to this diet. Thus he went on till his sixty-fourth year, when conceiving
by the decay of his strength that his death was drawing near, he retrenched
even his bread, and from that time to his eightieth year, his whole meal never
exceeded five ounces. When he was fourscore years of age there were made for
him little weak broths or gruels of flour and herbs, the whole quantity of his
meat and drink scarcely amounting to the weight of four ounces. Thus he passed
his whole life: and he never broke his fast till sunset, not even upon the
highest feasts, or in his greatest sickness. It is the remark of St. Jerom,
that slothful Christians too easily make old age and every other pretence a
plea to be the more remiss in their penance; but fervour made St. Hilarion
contrive means to redouble his austerities in his decrepit age, as the nearer
the prospect of certain death grew, and the shorter time remained for his
preparation. His long life is chiefly ascribed to his regularity, moderate
labour, and great abstemiousness. It is a proverb which the experience of all
ages confirms, that to eat long, a person ought to eat little.
Any one who considers the condition of man in this state of trial, and the
malice of the enemy of our salvation, will easily conceive that our saint did
not pass all these years, nor arrive at so eminent a degree of virtue and
sanctity without violent temptations and assaults from the infernal spirit: in
all which he was victorious by the assistance of omnipotent grace. Sometimes
his soul was covered with a dark cloud, and his heart was dry and oppressed
with bitter anguish: but the deafer heaven seemed to his cries on such
occasions, the louder and the more earnestly he persevered knocking. To have
dropped the shield of prayer under these temptations would have been to perish.
At other times his mind was haunted, and his imagination filled with impure
images, or with the vanities of the theatre and circus. These most painful
assaults the hermit repulsed with watchfulness, prayer, severe mortifications,
and hard labour. The adversary thus worsted, renewed the attack under various
other forms, sometimes alarming the saint with great variety of noises, at
other times endeavouring to affright him with hideous appearances and monstrous
spectres. When all this terrible artillery proved too weak, he shifted the
scene, and presented him again with all that could delight and charm the
senses. The phantoms of the enemy St. Hilarion dissipated by casting himself
upon his knees, and signing his forehead with the cross of Christ; and being
enlightened and strengthened by a supernatural grace he discovered his snares,
and never suffered himself to be imposed upon by the artifices by which that
subtle fiend strove to withdraw him from holy prayer, in which the saint spent
the days and great part of the nights. After the departure of the vanquished
enemy, the saint found his soul filled with unspeakable peace and joy, and in
the jubilation of his heart sung to God hymns of praise and thanksgiving,
saying: He hath cast the horse and the horseman into the sea; some trust
in their chariots, and some in their horses, &c. From his victories
themselves he learned to be more humble, watchful, and timorous.
St. Hilarion had spent above twenty years in his desert when he wrought his
first miracle. A certain married woman of Eleutheropolis, who was the scorn of
her husband for her barrenness, sought him out in his solitude, and by her
tears and importunities prevailed upon him to pray that God would bless her
with fruitfulness; and before the year’s end she brought forth a son. A second
miracle much enhanced the saint’s reputation: Elpidius, who was afterwards
prefect of the prætorium, 1 and
his wile Aristeneta, returning from a visit of devotion they had made to St.
Antony to receive his blessing and instructions, arrived at Gaza, where their
three children fell sick, and their fever proving superior to the power of
medicines they were brought to the last extremity, and their recovery despaired
of by the physicians. The mother, like one distracted, addressed herself to
Hilarion, who, moved by her tears, went to Gaza to visit them. Upon his
invoking the holy name of Jesus, by their bedside, the children fell into a
violent sweat, by which they were so refreshed as to be able to eat, to know
their mother, and kiss the saint’s hand. Upon the report of this miracle many
flocked to the saint, desiring to embrace a monastic life under his direction.
Till that time neither Syria nor Palestine were acquainted with that
penitential state: so that St. Hilarion was the first founder of it in those countries,
as St. Antony had been the founder of it in Egypt. Among other miraculous
cures, several persons possessed by devils were delivered by our saint. The
most remarkable were Marisitas, a young man of the territory about Jerusalem,
so strong that he boasted he could carry seven bushels of corn: and Orion, a
rich man of the city of Aila, who, after his cure, pressed the saint to accept
many great presents, at least for the poor. But the holy hermit persisted
obstinately to refuse touching any of them, bidding him bestow them himself.
St. Hilarion restored sight to a woman of Facidia, a town near Rino-corura, in
Egypt, who had been blind ten years. A citizen of Majuma, called Italicus, who
was a Christian, kept horses to run in the circus against a Duumvir of Gaza,
who adored Marnas, which was the great idol of Gaza, that word signifying in
Syriac, Lord of men. 2 Italicus,
knowing that his adversary had recourse to spells to stop his horses, came to
St. Hilarion, by whose blessings his horses seemed to fly, while the others
seemed fettered; upon seeing which the people cried out, that Marnas was
vanquished by Christ. This saint also delivered a girl in Gaza whom a young man
had inspired with a frantic passion of love, by certain spells, and magical
figures engraved on a copper-plate, which he had put under the door, bound with
a thread. It was pretended that the effect depended upon this charm, and could
not be broken but by the removal of the charm: but St. Hilarion would not
suffer either the young man or the spell, or mark of witchcraft to be sought
after, saying, that in order to drive away the devil it was not necessary to
destroy the charm, or give credit to his words, which are always deceitful: and
he delivered the girl, though the spell continued under the threshold. A native
of Franconia in Germany, one of the guards of Constantius, of those called,
from their white garments, Candidati, being possessed by an evil spirit, came
from court with a great attendance, having letters from the emperor to the
governor of Palestine. This man with his numerous train went from Gaza to visit
St. Hilarion, whom he found walking on the sands saying his prayers. The saint,
who understood his errand, commanded the devil, in the name of Christ to
depart, and the Frank was immediately delivered. Through simplicity he offered
the saint ten pounds of gold: St. Hilarion presented him one of his barley
loaves, saying, that they who wanted no other food, despised gold like dirt.
From the model which our saint set, a great number of monasteries were founded
all over Palestine. St. Hilarion visited them all on certain days before the
vintage. In one of these visits, seeing the Saracens assembled in great numbers
at Eleusa, in Idumæa, to adore Venus, he shed abundance of tears to God for
them. Many sick persons of this nation had been cured, and demoniacs delivered
by our saint, who was, on that account, well known by them, and they asked his
blessing. He received them with mildness and humility, conjuring them to adore
God rather than stones. His words had such an effect upon them, that they would
not suffer him to leave them till he had traced the ground for laying the
foundation of a church for them, and till their priest, who then wore a garland
in honour of their idols, was become a catechumen.
St. Hilarion was informed by revelation in Palestine, where he then was, of the
death of St. Antony. He was then about sixty-five years old, and had been for
two years much afflicted at the great number of bishops, priests, and people
that were continually resorting to him; by which his contemplation was
interrupted. At length, regretting the loss of that sweet solitude and
obscurity, which he formerly enjoyed, he resolved to leave that country, to
prevent which the people assembled to the number of ten thousand to watch him.
He told them he would neither eat nor drink till they let him go: and seeing
him pass seven days without taking any thing, they left him. He then chose
forty monks who were able to walk without breaking their fast, (that is,
without eating till after sunset,) and with them he travelled into Egypt. On
the fifth day he arrived at Peleusium; and in six days more at Babylon, in
Egypt. Two days after, he came to the city Aphroditon, where he applied himself
to the deacon Baisanes, who used to let dromedaries to those who had desired to
visit St. Antony, for carrying water which they had occasion for in that
desert. The saint desired to celebrate the anniversary of St. Antony’s death,
by watching all night in the place where he died. After travelling three days
in a horrible desert they came to St. Antony’s mountain, where they found two
monks, Isaac and Pelusius, who had been his disciples, and the first his
interpreter. It was a very high steep rock, of a mile in circuit, at the foot
of which was a rivulet, with abundance of palm-trees, on the borders. St.
Hilarion walked all over the place with the disciples of St. Antony. Here it
was, said they, that he sang, here he prayed: there he laboured, and there he
reposed himself when he was weary. He himself planted these vines, and these
little trees; he tilled this piece of ground with his own hands; he dug this
basin with abundance of labour, to water his garden, and he used this hoe to
work with several years together. St. Hilarion laid himself upon his bed, and
kissed it as if it had been still warm. The cell contained no more space in
length and breadth than what was necessary for a man to stretch himself in to
sleep. On the top of the mountain, (to which the ascent was very difficult,
turning like a vine,) they found two cells of the same size, to which he often
retired to avoid a number of visiters, and even the conversation of his own
disciples; they were hewn in a rock, nothing but doors being added to them.
When they came to the garden, “Do you see,” said Isaac, “this little garden
planted with trees and pot-herbs? About three years since a herd of wild asses
coming to destroy it, he stopped one of the first of them, and striking him on
the sides with his staff, said: ‘Why do you eat what you do not sow?’ From that
time forward they only came hither to drink, without meddling with the trees or
herbs.” St. Hilarion asked to see the place where he was buried. They carried
him to a bye place; but it is uncertain whether they showed it to him or not;
for they showed no grave, and only said, that St. Antony had given the
strictest charge that his grave should be concealed, fearing lest Pergamius,
who was a very rich man in that country, should carry the body home, and cause
a church to be built for it.
St. Hilarion returned from this place to Aphroditon, and retiring with only two
disciples into a neighbouring desert, exercised himself with more earnestness
than ever in abstinence and silence; saying, according to his custom, than he
then only began to serve Jesus Christ. It had not rained in the country for
three years, that is, ever since the death of St. Antony, when the people, in
deep affliction and misery, addressed themselves to St. Hilarion, whom they
looked upon as St. Antony’s successor, imploring his compassion and prayers.
The saint, sensibly affected with their distress, lifted up his hands and eyes
to heaven, and immediately obtained a plentiful rain. Also many labourers and
herdsmen who were stung by serpents and venomous beasts, were perfectly cured
by anointing their wounds with oil which he had blessed and given them. Though
oil be the natural and sovereign antidote against poison, these cures by his
blessing were esteemed miraculous. The saint, seeing the extraordinary honours
which were paid him in that place, departed privately towards Alexandria, in
order to proceed to the desert of Oasis. It not being his custom to stop in
great cities, he turned from Alexandria, into Brutium, a remote suburb of that
city, where several monks dwelt. He left this place the same evening, and when
these monks very importunately pressed his stay, he told them that it was
necessary for their security that he should leave them. The sequel showed that
he had the spirit of prophecy; for that very night armed men arrived there in
pursuit of him, with an order to put him to death. When Julian the Apostate
ascended the throne, the pagans of Gaza obtained an order from that prince to
kill him, in revenge of the affront he had put upon their god Marnas, and of
the many conversions he had made; and they had sent this party into Egypt to
execute the sentence. The soldiers, finding themselves disappointed at Brutium,
said he well deserved the character of a magician which he had at Gaza. The
saint spent about a year in the desert of Oasis, and finding that he was too
well known in that country ever to lie concealed there, determined to seek
shelter in some remote island, and, going to Paretonium in Lybia, embarked
there with one companion for Sicily. He landed at Pachynus, a famous promontory
on the eastern side of the island, now called Capo di Passaro. Upon landing he
offered to pay for his passage and that of his companion, with a copy of the
gospels which he had written in his youth with his own hand: but the master,
seeing their whole stock consisted in that manuscript and the clothes on their
backs, would not accept of it; he even esteemed himself indebted to this
passenger, who by his prayers had delivered his son, who was possessed by a
devil, on board the vessel. St. Hilarion, fearing lest he should be discovered
by some oriental merchants if he settled near the coast, travelled twenty miles
up the country, and stopped in an unfrequented wild place; where, by gathering
sticks, he made every day a fagot, which he sent his disciple, whose name was
Zanan, to sell at the next village, in order to buy a little bread. Devils in
possessed persons soon discovered him, and the saint freed them, and cured many
sick persons; but constantly refused all presents that were offered him,
saying, freely ye have received, freely give. 3 Hesychius,
the saint’s beloved disciple, had sought him in the East and through Greece,
when, at Methone, now called Modon, in Peloponnesus, he heard that a prophet
had appeared in Sicily, who wrought many miracles. He embarked, and arrived at
Pachynus; and, inquiring for the holy man at the first village, found that
every body knew him: he was not more distinguished by his miracles than by his
disinterestedness; for he could never be prevailed upon to take any thing, not
so much as a morsel of bread, from any one.
St. Hilarion was desirous to go into some strange country, where not even his
language should be understood. Hesychius therefore carried him to Epidaurus in
Dalmatia, now Old Ragusa, the ruins of which city are seen near the present
capital of the republic of that name. 4 Miracles
here again defeated the saint’s design of living unknown. St. Jerom relates
that a serpent of an enormous size devoured both cattle and men, and that the
saint, having prayed, commanded this monster to come into the midst of a pile
of wood prepared on purpose; then set fire to it, so that this pernicious
creature was burnt to ashes. He also tells us, that when the most dreadful
earthquake mentioned by historians, both ecclesiastical and profane, 5 happened
in the year 365, in the first consulship of Valentinian and Valens, the sea on
the coast of Dalmatia swelled so high as to overflow the land, and threaten to
overwhelm the whole city of Epidaurus. The affrighted inhabitants in a crowd
brought Hilarion to the shore, as it were to oppose him as a strong wall
against the furious waves. The saint made three crosses in the sand, then
stretched forth his arms towards the sea; and to the astonishment of all, its billows
stopped, and rising up like a high mountain, returned back. St. Hilarion,
seeing it impossible to live there unknown, fled away in the night in a small
vessel to the island of Cyprus. Being arrived there he retired to a place two
miles from Paphos. He had not been there three weeks when such as were
possessed with devils in any part of the island began to cry out that Hilarion,
the servant of Jesus Christ, was come. He expelled the evil spirits, but,
sighing after the tranquillity of closer retirement, considered how he could
make his escape to some other country; but the inhabitants watched him that he
might not leave them. After two years, Hesychius persuaded him to lay aside
that design, and retire to a solitary place which he had found, twelve miles
from the shore, not unpleasantly situated, among very rough and craggy
mountains, where there was water with fruit trees, which advice the saint
followed, but he never tasted the fruit. Here he lived five years, and wrought
several miracles. The sweetness and spiritual advantages which he reaped from
heavenly contemplation made him trample under his feet all earthly
considerations, and make it the great object of his desires in this life to
labour incessantly to purge his soul more and more from all stains and
imperfections by tears of compunction, and other practices of penance, and to
imitate on earth, as much as possible, the happy employment of the blessed in
heaven. St. Jerom mentions that though he lived so many years in Palestine, he
never went up to visit the holy places at Jerusalem but once; and then staid
only one day in that city. He went once that he might not seem to despise that
devotion; but did not go oftener, lest he should seem persuaded that God, or
his religious worship, is confined to any particular place. 6 His
chief reason, doubtless, was to shun the distractions of populous places that,
as much as possible, nothing might interrupt the close union of his soul to
God. The saint, in the eightieth year of his age, whilst Hesychius was absent,
wrote him a short letter with his own hand in the nature of a last will and
testament, in which he bequeathed to him all his riches, namely, his book of
the gospels, his sackcloth, hood and little cloak. Many pious persons came from
Paphos to see him in his last sickness, hearing he had foretold that he was to go
to our Lord. With them there came a holy woman named Constantia, whose
son-in-law and daughter he had freed from death by anointing them with oil. He
caused them to swear that as soon as he should have expired, they would
immediately commit his corpse to the earth, apparelled as he was, with his
hair-cloth, hood, and cloak. His distemper increasing upon him, very little
heat appeared to remain in his body, nor did any thing seem to remain in him of
a living man besides his understanding, only his eyes were still open. He
expressed his sense of the divine judgments, but encouraged his soul to an
humble confidence in the mercy of his Judge and Redeemer, saying to himself:
“Go forth, what dost thou fear? go forth, my soul, what dost thou apprehend.
Behold it is now near threescore and ten years that thou hast served Christ:
and art thou afraid of death?” He had scarcely spoken these words but he gave
up the ghost, and was immediately buried as he had ordered.
If this saint trembled after an innocent, penitential, and holy life, because
he considered how perfect the purity and sanctity of a soul must be to stand
before him who is infinite purity and infinite justice; how much ought tepid,
slothful, and sinful Christians to fear? Whilst love inflames the saints with
an ardent desire of being united to their God in the kingdom of pure love and
security, a holy fear of his justice checks and humbles in them all
presumption. This fear must never sink into despondency, abjection, or despair;
but quicken our sloth, animate our fervour, and raise our courage; it must be
solicitous, not anxious or pusillanimous; and, whilst we fear from whatever is
in us, love and hope must fill our souls with sweet peace and joy, and with an
entire confidence in the infinite mercy and goodness of God, and the merits of
our divine Redeemer. St. Hilarion died in 371, or the following year, being
about eighty years of age; for he was sixty-five years old at the death of St.
Antony. Hesychius, who was in Palestine, made haste to Cyprus upon hearing this
news, and, pretending to take up his dwelling in the same garden, after ten
months, found an opportunity of secretly carrying off the saint’s body into
Palestine, where he interred it in his monastery, near Majuma. It was as entire
as it was when alive, and the clothes were untouched. Many miracles were
wrought, both in Cyprus and Palestine, through his intercession, as St. Jerom
assures us. Sozomen mentions his festival to have been kept with great
solemnity in the fifth age. 7 See
his life written by St. Jerom before the year 392, (Ed. Ben. t. 4, part 2, p. 74);
Pagi ad ann. 372, Fleury, t. 2.
Note 1. Emmian. Marcel. l. 21. [back]
Note 2. Bochart, Canaan, l. 2, c. 12. Calmet, &c. [back]
Note 3. Matt. x.
8. [back]
Note 4. This Epidaurus is not to be confounded with two towns of that name
in Peloponnesus, one of which was famous for the worship of Esculapius. [back]
Note 5. See on this earthquake St. Jerom, in Chron. Euseb. Anno 2,
Valentiniani; and in Isa. i. 15. Orosius, l. vii. c. 32. Socrates, l. iv.
c. 3. Idat. in Fastis. Chron. Paschale. Amm. Marcell. l. xxvi. [back]
Note 6. St. Hier. ep. 49, fol. 13, ad Paulin. t. 4. par. 2, p. 564, Ed.
Ben. [back]
Note 7. St. Hier. ep. 49, fol. 13, ad Paulin. t. 4. par. 2, p. 564, Ed.
Ben. [back]
Rev. Alban Butler (1711–73). Volume X: October. The Lives
of the Saints. 1866.
SOURCE : http://www.bartleby.com/210/10/212.html
Octave Tassaert (1800–1874), La
tentation de Saint Hilarion, circa 1857, 111.4 x 144.3, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
The Life of St. Hilarion
The life
of Hilarion was written by Jerome in 390 at Bethlehem.
Its object was to further the ascetic life
to which he was devoted. It contains, amidst much that is legendary, some
statements which attach it to genuine history, and is in any case a curious
record of the state of the human mind in
the 4th century. A theory started in Germany, that it was a sort
of religious romance, seems destitute of foundation. It may possibly
have been, in Jerome's intention, a contribution to
the church history the writing of which he proposed but
never executed. (See the Life of Malchus, c. 1.)
1. Before I begin to
write the life of the blessed Hilarion I invoke the
aid of the Holy
Spirit who dwelt in him, that He who bestowed upon the saint his virtues may
grant me such power of speech to relate them that my words may be adequate to
his deeds.
For the virtue of
those who have done great deeds is
esteemed in proportion to the ability with which it has been praised
by men of genius. Alexander the Great
of Macedon who is spoken of by Daniel as the ram, or
the panther, or the he-goat, on reaching the grave
of Achilles exclaimed Happy Youth! To have
the privilege of a great herald of your worth, meaning, of
course, Homer. I, however, have to tell the story of the life and conversation
of a man so renowned that even Homer were he here would either envy me
the theme or prove unequal to it. It is true that
that holy man Epiphanius, bishop of Salamis in Cyprus,
who had much intercourse with Hilarion, set forth his praises in a short
but widely circulated letter. Yet it is one thing to praise the dead in general
terms, another to relate their characteristic virtues.
And so we in taking up the work begun by him do him service rather than wrong:
we despise the abuse of some who as they once disparaged my
hero Paulus, will now perhaps disparage Hilarion; the
former they censured for his solitary life; they may find fault with
the latter for his intercourse with the world; the one was always out of sight,
therefore they think he had no existence;
the other was seen by many, therefore he is deemed of no account. It
is just what their ancestors the Pharisees did
of old! They were not pleased with Matthew 11:18 John fasting in
the desert,
nor with our Lord and Saviour in the busy throng, eating
and drinking. But I will put my hand to the work on which I have resolved, and
go on my way closing my ears to the barking of Scylla's hounds.
2. The birth place
of Hilarion was the village Thabatha, situate about five miles
to the south of Gaza, a city of Palestine. His parents were idolaters,
and therefore, as the saying is, the rose blossomed on the thorn. By them he
was committed to the charge of a Grammarian at Alexandria,
where, so far as his age allowed, he gave proofs of
remarkable ability and character: and in a short
time endeared himself to all and became an accomplished speaker. More
important than all this, he was a believer in the Lord
Jesus, and took no delight in the madness of
the circus, the blood of the arena, the excesses of the theatre: his whole
pleasure was in the assemblies of the Church.
3. At
that time he heard of the famous name of Antony, which was in
the mouth of all the races of Egypt.
He was fired with a desire to see him, and set out for the desert.
He no sooner saw him than he changed his former mode of life and abode with him
about two months, studying the method of his life and the gravity of his
conduct: his assiduity in prayer,
his humility in his dealings with the brethren, his severity in
rebuke, his eagerness in exhortation. He noted too that the saint would never
on account of bodily weakness break his rule of abstinence or deviate
from the plainness of his food. At last, unable to endure any longer the crowds
of those who visited the saint because of various afflictions or the assaults
of demons,
and deeming it a strange anomaly that he should have to bear
in the desert the
crowds of the cities, he thought it was better for him to begin
as Antony had begun. Said he: Antony is reaping the reward of
victory like a hero who has proved his bravery.
I have not entered on the soldier's career. He therefore returned
with certain monks to
his country, and, his parents being
now dead, gave part of his property to his brothers, part to
the poor,
keeping nothing at all for himself, for he remembered with awe the passage in
the Acts of the Apostles and dreaded the example and the
punishment of Ananias and Sapphira; above all he was mindful of
the Lord's words, Luke 14:33 whosoever
he be of you that renounces not all that he has, he cannot be my disciple.
At this time he was about fifteen years old. Accordingly, stripped
bare and armed with the weapons of Christ,
he entered the wilderness which stretches to the left seven miles from Majoma,
the port of Gaza, as you go along the coast to Egypt.
And although the locality had a record of robbery and
of blood, and his relatives and
friends warned him of the danger he was incurring, he despised death that he
might escape death.
4. His courage and
tender years would have been a marvel to all, were it not that his heart was on
fire and his eyes bright with the gleams and sparks of faith.
His cheeks were smooth, his body thin and delicate, unfit to bear the slightest
injury which cold or heat could inflict. What then? With no other covering for
his limbs but a shirt of sackcloth, and a cloak of skins which
the blessed Antony had given him when he set out, and
a blanket of the coarsest sort, he found pleasure in the
vast and terrible wilderness with the sea on one side and the marshland on
the other. His food was only fifteen dried figs after sunset. And because the
district was notorious for brigandage, it was his practice never
to abide long in the same place. What was the devil to
do? Whither could he turn? He who once boasted and said, Isaiah 14:14 I will ascend into heaven,
I will set my throne above the stars of the sky, I will be like the most
High, saw himself conquered and trodden under foot by a boy whose years
did not allow of sin.
5. Satan therefore
tickled his senses and, as is his wont, lighted in his maturing body
the fires of lust.
This mere beginner in Christ's school was forced to think of
what he knew not,
and to revolve whole trains of thought concerning that of which he had no
experience. Angry with himself and beating his bosom (as if with the
blow of his hand he could shut out his thoughts) Ass! he
exclaimed, I'll stop your kicking, I will not feed you with barley, but
with chaff. I will weaken you with hunger and thirst, I will lade you
with heavy burdens, I will drive you through heat and cold, that you may think
more of food than wantonness. So for three or four days afterwards he
sustained his sinking spirit with the juice of herbs and a few dried
figs, praying frequently
and singing, and hoeing the ground that the suffering of fasting might
be doubled by the pain of toil. At the same time he wove baskets of rushes and
emulated the discipline of the Egyptian monks,
and put into practice the Apostle's precept, 2 Thessalonians 3:10 If
any will not work, neither let him eat. By these practices he became so
enfeebled and his frame so wasted, that his bones scarcely held together.
6. One night he began to
hear the wailing of infants, the bleating of flocks, the lowing of
oxen, the lament of what seemed to be women,
the roaring of lions, the noise of an army, and moreover various portentous cries
which made him in alarm shrink from the sound ere he had the sight. He
understood that the demons were disporting themselves,
and falling on his knees he made the sign
of the cross on his forehead. Thus armed as he lay he fought
the more bravely, half longing to see those whom he shuddered to hear, and
anxiously looking in every direction. Meanwhile all at once in the
bright moonlight he saw a chariot with dashing steeds rushing upon
him. He called upon Jesus, and suddenly before his eyes, the earth was
opened and the whole array was swallowed up. Then he said, Exodus 15:1 The
horse and his rider has He thrown into the sea. And, Some trust in
chariots, and some in horses; but we will triumph in the name of
the Lord our God.
7. So many were his temptations and
so various the snares of demons night
and day, that if I wished to relate them, a volume would not suffice. How often
when he lay down did naked women appear
to him, how often sumptuous feasts when he was hungry! Sometimes as
he prayed a
howling wolf sprang past or a snarling fox, and when he sang a gladiatorial
show was before him, and a man newly slain would seem to fall at his
feet and ask him for burial.
8. Once upon
a time he was praying with
his head upon the ground. As is the way with men, his attention was
withdrawn from his devotions, and he was thinking of something else, when
a tormentor sprang upon his back and driving his heels into his sides and
beating him across the neck with a horse-whip cried out Come! Why are
you asleep? Then with a loud laugh asked if he was tired and would like to
have some barley.
9. From his sixteenth to
his twentieth year he shielded himself from heat and rain in a little hut which
he had constructed of reeds and sedge. Afterwards he built
himself a small cell which remains to the present day, five feet in height,
that is less than his own height, and only a little more in length. One might
suppose it a tomb rather than a house.
10. He shaved his hair
once a year on Easter Day,
and until his death was accustomed to lie on the bare ground or on a
bed of rushes. The sackcloth which he had once put on he never
washed, and he used to say that it was going too far to look
for cleanliness in goats' hair-cloth. Nor did he change his
shirt unless the one he wore was almost in rags. He had committed
the Sacred Writings to memory, and after prayer and
singing was wont to recite them as if in the presence of God.
It would be tedious to narrate singly the successive steps of
his spiritual ascent; I will therefore set them in a summary way
before my reader, and describe his mode of life at each stage,
and will afterwards return to proper historical sequence.
11. From his twentieth to
his twenty-seventh year, for three years his food was half
a pint of lentils moistened with cold water, and for the
next three dry bread with salt and
water. From his twenty-seventh year onward to the thirtieth, he supported
himself on wild herbs and the raw roots of certain shrubs. From
his thirty-first to his thirty-fifth year, he had for food
six ounces of barley bread, and vegetables slightly cooked without
oil. But finding his eyes growing dim and his whole
body shrivelled with a scabby eruption and
dry mange, he added oil to his former food and up to
the sixty-third year of his life followed
this temperate course, tasting neither fruit nor pulse, nor anything
whatsoever besides. Then when he saw that his bodily health was broken down,
and thought death was near, from his sixty-fourth year to
his eightieth he abstained from bread. The fervour of his spirit was
so wonderful, that at times when others are wont to allow themselves some
laxity of living he appeared to be entering like a novice on the
service of the Lord. He made a sort of broth from meal and bruised herbs,
food and drink together scarcely weighing six ounces, and, while obeying this
rule of diet, he never broke his fast before sunset, not even
on festivals nor in severe sickness. But it is now time to
return to the course of event.
12. While still living in
the hut, at the age of eighteen, robbers came
to him by night, either supposing that he had something which they might carry
off, or considering that they would be brought into contempt if a
solitary boy felt no dread of their attacks. They searched up and down between
the sea and the marsh from evening until daybreak without being able
to find his resting place. Then, having discovered the boy by the light of day
they asked him, half in jest, What would you do if robbers came
to you? He replied, He that has nothing does not fear robbers.
Said they, At all events, you might be killed. I
might, said he, I might; and therefore I do not fear robbers because
I am prepared to die. Then they marvelled at his firmness and faith, confessed how
they had wandered about in the night, and how their eyes had been blinded, and
promised to lead a stricter life in the future.
13. He had now spent
twenty-two years in the wilderness and was the common theme in all the cities
of Palestine, though everywhere known by repute only.
The first person bold enough to break into the presence of
the blessed Hilarion was a certain woman of Eleutheropolis who
found that she was despised by her husband on account of her sterility (for in
fifteen years she had borne no fruit of wedlock). He had no expectation of
her coming when she suddenly threw herself at his feet. Forgive my
boldness, she said: take pity on my necessity. Why do you turn
away your eyes? Why shun my entreaties? Do not think of me as a woman,
but as an object of compassion. It was my sex that bore the Saviour. Luke 5:31 They
that are whole have no need of a physician, but they that are sick. At length,
after a long time he no longer turned away, but looked at the woman and
asked the cause of
her coming and of her tears. On learning this he raised his eyes
to heaven and bade her have faith,
then wept over her as she departed. Within a year he saw her with a son.
14. This his first miracle was
succeeded by another still greater and more notable. Aristæneté; the wife
of Elpidius who was afterwards pretorian prefect, a woman well
known among her own people, still better known among Christians,
on her return with her husband, from visiting the blessed Antony, was
delayed at Gaza by the sickness of her three children; for there,
whether it was owing to the vitiated atmosphere, or whether it was, as
afterwards became clear, for the glory of God's servant Hilarion,
they were all alike seized by a semi-tertian ague and despaired of by
the physicians. The mother lay wailing, or as one might say walked up
and down between the corpses of her three sons not knowing which
she should first have to mourn for. When, however, she knew that
there was a certain monk in
the neighbouring wilderness, forgetting her matronly state (she only
remembered she was a mother) she set out accompanied by her handmaids and
eunuchs, and was hardly persuaded by her husband to take an ass to
ride upon. On reaching the saint she said, I pray you
by Jesus our most merciful God,
I beseech you by His cross and blood, to restore to me my three sons,
so that the name of our Lord and Saviour may be glorified in
the city of the Gentiles.
Then shall his servants enter Gaza and
the idol Marnas shall fall to the ground. At first he refused
and said that he never left his cell and was not accustomed to enter a house,
much less the city; but she threw herself upon the ground and cried
repeatedly, Hilarion, servant of Christ,
give me back my children: Antony kept them safe in Egypt,
do you save them in Syria.
All present were weeping, and the saint himself wept as he denied her. What
need to say more? The woman did
not leave him till he promised that he would enter Gaza after sunset.
On coming there he made the sign
of the cross over the bed and fevered limbs of each, and called upon
the name of Jesus. Marvellous efficacy of the Name! As if from
three fountains the sweat burst forth at the same time: in that very hour they
took food, recognized their mourning mother, and, with thanks to God,
warmly kissed the saint's hands. When
the matter was noised abroad, and the fame of it spread far and wide,
the people flocked to him from Syria and Egypt,
so that many believed in Christ and
professed themselves monks.
For as yet there were no monasteries in Palestine,
nor had anyone known a monk in Syria before
the saintly Hilarion. It was he who originated this mode of life
and devotion, and who first trained men to it in that province.
The Lord Jesus had in Egypt the
aged Antony: in Palestine He had the youthful Hilarion.
15. Facidia is
a hamlet belonging to Rhino-Corura, a city of Egypt.
From this village a woman who
had been blind for ten years was brought to the blessed Hilarion, and
on being presented to him by the brethren (for there were now many monks with
him) affirmed that she had spent all her substance on physicians. The
saint replied: If you had given to the poor what you have wasted
on physicians, the true physician Jesus would
have cured you. But when she cried aloud and entreated pity, he spat into her
eyes, in imitation of the Saviour,
and with similar instant effect.
16. A charioteer, also
of Gaza, stricken by a demon in
his chariot became perfectly stiff, so that he could neither move his hand nor
bend his neck. He was brought on a litter, but could
only signify his petition by moving his tongue; and was
told that he could not be healed unless he first believed in Christ and
promised to forsake his former occupation. He believed,
he promised, and he was healed: and rejoiced more in the saving of
the soul than
in that of the body.
17. Again, a very
powerful youth called Marsitas from the neighbourhood
of Jerusalem plumed himself so highly on his strength that he
carried fifteen bushels of grain for a long time and over a
considerable distance, and considered it as his highest glory that
he could beat the asses in endurance. This man was afflicted with a
grievous demon and
could not endure chains, or fetters, but broke even the bolts and bars of the
doors. He had bitten off the noses and ears of many: had broken the feet of
some, the legs of others. He had struck such terror of himself into everybody,
that he was laden with chains and dragged by ropes on all sides like a
wild bull to the monastery.
As soon as the brethren saw him they were greatly alarmed (for the man was of
gigantic size) and told the Father. He, seated as he was, commanded him to be
brought to him and released. When he was free, Bow your head, said
he, and come. The man began to tremble; he twisted his neck round and
did not dare to look him in the face, but laid aside all his fierceness and
began to lick his feet as he sat. At last the demon which
had possessed the young man being tortured by the saint's adjurations
came forth on the seventh day.
18. Nor must we omit to
tell that Orion, a leading man and wealthy citizen
of Aira, on the coast of the Red
Sea, being possessed by a legion of demons was
brought to him. Hands, neck, sides, feet were laden with iron, and
his glaring eyes portended an access of raging madness.
As the saint was walking with the brethren and expounding some passage
of Scripture the man broke from the hands of his keepers, clasped him
from behind and raised him aloft. There was a shout from all, for
they feared lest he might crush his limbs wasted as they were
with fasting.
The saint smiled and said, Be quiet, and let me have my rival in the
wrestling match to myself. Then he bent back his hand over his shoulder
till he touched the man's head, seized his hair and drew him round so
as to be foot to foot with him; he then stretched both his hands in a straight
line, and trod on his two feet with both his own, while he cried out again and
again, To torment with you! You crowd of demons,
to torment! The sufferer shouted aloud and bent back his neck till his
head touched the ground, while the saint said, Lord Jesus, release
this wretched man, release this captive. Yours it is to conquer many, no less
than one. What I now relate is unparalleled: from one man's lips
were heard different voices and as it were the confused shouts of a multitude.
Well, he too was cured, and not long after came with his wife and children to
the monastery bringing
many gifts expressive of his gratitude. The saint thus addressed
him— Have you not read what befell Gehazi and Simon, one of
whom took a reward, the other offered it, the former in order to
sell grace,
the latter to buy it? And when Orion said with tears, Take it
and give it to the poor,
he replied, You can best distribute your own gifts, for you tread the
streets of the cities and know the poor.
Why should I who have forsaken my own seek another man's? To many the name
of the poor is a pretext for their avarice;
but compassion knows no
artifices. No one better spends than he who keeps nothing for himself. The man
was sad and lay upon the ground. Be not sad, my son, he
said; what I do for my own good I do also for yours. If I were
to take these gifts I should myself offend God,
and, moreover, the legion would return to you.
19. There is a story
relating to Majomites of Gaza which it is impossible to pass
over in silence. While quarrying building stones on the shore not far from
the monastery he
was helplessly paralysed, and after being carried to the saint by his
fellow-workman immediately returned to his work in perfect health. I
ought to explain that the shore of Palestine and Egypt naturally consists
of soft sand and gravel which gradually becomes consolidated and hardens into
rock; and thus though to the eye it remains the same it is no longer the same
to the touch.
20. Another story relates
to Italicus, a citizen of the same town. He was a Christian and
kept horses for the circus to contend against those of the Duumvir
of Gaza who was a votary of
the idol god Marnas. This custom at least
in Roman cities was as old as the days of Romulus, and was
instituted in commemoration of the successful seizure of the Sabine women.
The chariots raced seven times round the circus in honour of Consus in
his character of the God of
Counsel. Victory lay with the team which tired out the horses
opposed to them. Now the rival of Italicus had in his pay a magician
to incite his horses by certain demoniacal incantations,
and keep back those of his opponent. Italicus therefore came to
the blessed Hilarion and besought his aid not so much for the
injury of his adversary as for protection for himself. It seemed absurd for the
venerable old man to waste prayers on
trifles of this sort. He therefore smiled and said, Why do you not rather
give the price of the horses to the poor for the salvation of
your soul?
His visitor replied that his office was a public duty, and that
he acted not so much from choice as from compulsion, that no Christian man
could employ magic, but would rather seek aid from a servant of Christ,
especially against the people of Gaza who were enemies of God,
and who would exult over the Church of Christ more
than over him. At the request therefore of the brethren who were present he
ordered an earthenware cup out of which he was wont to drink to be filled with
water and given to Italicus. The latter took it and sprinkled it over his
stable and horses, his charioteers and his chariot, and the barriers of the
course. The crowd was in a marvellous state of excitement, for the enemy in
derision had published the news of what was going to be done, and
the backers of Italicus were in high spirits at
the victory which they promised themselves. The signal is given; the one team
flies towards the goal, the other sticks fast: the wheels are glowing hot
beneath the chariot of the one, while the other scarce catches a glimpse of
their opponents' backs as they flit past. The shouts of the crowd
swell to a roar, and the heathens themselves
with one voice declare Marnas is conquered by Christ. After this
the opponents in their rage demanded that Hilarion as
a Christian magician
should be dragged to execution. This decisive victory and several others which
followed in successive games of the circus caused many to turn to
the faith.
21. There was a youth in
the neighbourhood of the same market-town of Gaza who
was desperately in love with
one of God's virgins.
After he had tried again and again those touches, jests, nods, and whispers
which so commonly lead to the destruction of virginity,
but had made no progress by these means, he went to a magician
at Memphis to whom he proposed to make known his
wretched state, and then, fortified with his arts, to return to his assault
upon the virgin. Accordingly after a year's instruction by the priest of
Æsculapius, who does not heal souls but
destroys them, he came full of the lust which
he had previously allowed his mind to entertain,
and buried beneath the threshold of the girl's house certain magical formulæ;
and revolting figures engraven on a plate of Cyprian brass. Thereupon
the maid began to show signs of insanity, to throw away the
covering of her head, tear her hair, gnash her teeth, and loudly call the
youth by name. Her intense affection had become a frenzy. Her parents therefore
brought her to the monastery and
delivered her to the aged saint. No sooner was this done than the devil began
to howl and confess. I was compelled, I was carried off against
my will. How happy I
was when I used to beguile the men of Memphis in
their dreams! What crosses, what torture I suffer! You force me to go out,
and I am kept bound under the threshold. I cannot go out unless the young man
who keeps me there lets me go. The old man answered, Your strength must be
great indeed, if a bit of thread and a plate can keep you bound. Tell me, how
is it that you dared to enter into this maid who belongs
to God? That I might preserve her as a virgin,
said he. You preserve her, betrayer of chastity!
Why did you not rather enter into him who sent you? For what
purpose, he answers, should I enter into one who was in alliance with
a comrade of my own, the demon of love?
But the saint would not command search to be made for either the young man or
the charms till the maiden had undergone a process of purgation,
for fear that
it might be thought that the demon had
been released by means of incantations, or that he himself had attached credit
to what he said. He declared that demons are deceitful and
well versed in dissimulation, and sharply rebuked the virgin when she
had recovered her health for having by her conduct given an opportunity for
the demon to
enter.
22. It was not only
in Palestine and the neighbouring cities of Egypt or Syria that
he was in high repute, but his fame had reached distant provinces.
An officer of the Emperor Constantius whose golden hair and
personal beauty revealed his country (it lay between
the Saxons and the Alemanni, was of no great extent but
powerful, and is known to historians as Germany,
but is now called France), had long, that is to say from infancy, been
pursued by a devil,
who forced him in the night to howl, groan, and gnash his teeth. He therefore
secretly asked the Emperor for a post-warrant, plainly telling him why he
wanted it, and having also obtained letters to
the legate at Palestine came with great pomp and a large
retinue to Gaza. On his inquiring of the local senators
where Hilarion the monk dwelt,
the people of Gaza were much alarmed, and supposing that he had been
sent by the Emperor, brought him to the monastery,
that they might show respect to one so highly accredited, and that, if any
guilt had been incurred by them by injuries previously done by them
to Hilarion it might be obliterated by their
present dutifulness. The old man at the time was taking a walk
on the soft sands and was humming some passage or other from
the psalms. Seeing so great a company approaching he stopped, and having
returned the salutes of all while he raised his hand and gave them
his blessing, after an hour's interval he bade the rest
withdraw, but would have his visitor together with servants and
officers remain: for by the man's eyes and countenance he knew the cause of
his coming. Immediately on being questioned by the servant of God the
man sprang up on tiptoe, so as scarcely to touch the ground with his feet,
and with a wild roar replied in Syriac in which language he had been
interrogated. Pure Syriac was heard flowing from the lips of a
barbarian who knew only French and Latin,
and that without the absence of a sibilant, or an aspirate, or an
idiom of the speech of Palestine. The demon then confessed by
what means he had entered into him. Further, that his interpreters who knew only Greek and Latin might
understand, Hilarion questioned him also in Greek, and when he
gave the same answer in the same words and alleged in excuse many occasions on
which spells had been laid upon him, and how he was bound to yield to magic
arts, I care not, said the saint, how you came to enter, but I
command you in the name of our
Lord Jesus Christ to come out. The man, as soon as he was healed, with
a rough simplicity offered him ten pounds of gold. But the saint took
from him only bread, and told him that they who were nourished on such food
regarded gold as mire.
23. It is not enough to
speak of men; brute animals were also daily brought to him in a
state of madness,
and among them a Bactrian camel of enormous size amid the shouts of
thirty men or more who held him tight with stout ropes. He had
already injured many. His eyes were bloodshot, his mouth filled with foam,
his rolling tongue swollen, and above every other source of terror was his loud
and hideous roar. Well, the old man ordered him to be let go. At once those who
brought him as well as the attendants of the saint fled away without exception.
The saint went by himself to meet him, and addressing him in Syriac said, You
do not alarm me, devil,
huge though your present body is. Whether in a fox or a camel you
are just the same. Meanwhile he stood with outstretched
hand. The brute raging and looking as if he would
devour Hilarion came up to him, but immediately fell down, laid its
head on the ground, and to the amazement of all present showed suddenly
no less tameness than it had exhibited ferocity before. But the
old man declared to them how the devil,
for men's sake, seizes even beasts of burden; that he is inflamed by
such intense hatred for men that
he desires to destroy not only them but what belongs to them. As an
illustration of this he added the fact that before he was permitted to try
the saintly Job, he made an end of all his substance. Nor ought
it to disturb anyone that by the Lord's command two thousand
swine were slain by the agency of demons,
since those who witnessed the miracle could
not have believed that
so great a multitude of demons had
gone out of the man unless an equally vast number of swine had rushed to ruin,
showing that it was a legion that impelled them.
24. Time would
fail me if I wished to relate all the miracles which
were wrought by him. For to such a pitch of glory was
he raised by the Lord that
the blessed Antony among the rest hearing of his life wrote to
him and gladly received his letters. And if ever the sick from Syria came
to him he would say to them, Why have you taken the trouble to come so
far, when you have there my son Hilarion? Following his example,
however, innumerable monasteries sprang
up throughout the whole of Palestine, and all the monks flocked
to him. When he saw this he praised the Lord for His grace,
and exhorted them individually to the profit of their souls,
telling them that the fashion of this world passes away, and that the true life
is that which is purchased by suffering in the present.
25. Wishing to
set the monks an
example of humility and of zeal he
was accustomed on fixed days before the vintage to visit their cells. When the
brethren knew this
they would all come together to meet him, and in company with their
distinguished leader go the round of the monasteries,
taking with them provisions, because sometimes as many as two
thousand men were assembled. But, as time went on, all the
settlements round gladly gave food to the neighbouring monks for
the entertainment of the saints.
Moreover, the care he took to prevent any brother however humble or poor being
passed over is evidenced by the journey which he once took into the desert of Cades to
visit one of his disciples.
With a great company of monks he
reached Elusa, as it happened on the day when the
annual festival had brought all the people together to
the temple of Venus. This, goddess is worshipped on account
of Lucifer to whom the Saracen nation is devoted. The very
town too is to a great extent semi-barbarous, owing to its situation. When
therefore it was heard that Saint Hilarion was passing through
(he had frequently healed many Saracens possessed by demons),
they went to meet him in crowds with their wives and children, bending their
heads and crying in the Syriac tongue Barech, that is, Bless.
He received them with courtesy and humility, and prayed that
they might worship God rather than stones; at the same time,
weeping copiously, he looked up to heaven and promised that if they
would believe in Christ he
would visit them often. By the marvellous grace of God they
did not suffer him to depart before he had drawn the outline of a church,
and their priest with
his garland upon his head had been signed with the sign of Christ.
26. Another year, again,
when he was setting out to visit the monasteries and
was drawing up a list of those with whom he must stay and whom he must see in
passing, the monks knowing that
one of their number was a niggard, and being at the same time desirous to
cure his complaint, asked the saint to stay with him. He replied, Do you
wish me to inflict injury on you and annoyance on the brother? The
niggardly brother on hearing of this was ashamed, and with the strenuous
support of all his brethren, at length obtained from the saint a reluctant
promise to put his monastery on
the roll of his resting places. Ten days after they came to him and found the
keepers already on guard in the vineyard through which their course lay,
to keep off all comers with stones and clods and slings. In the morning
they all departed without having eaten a grape, while the old man smiled and
pretended not to know what
had happened.
27. Once when they were
being entertained by another monk whose
name was Sabus (we must not of course give the name of the niggard,
we may tell that of this generous man), because it was
the Lord's day, they were all invited by him into the vineyard so
that before the hour for food came they might relieve the toil of the journey
by a repast of grapes. Said the saint, Cursed be he who looks
for the refreshment of the body before that of the soul.
Let us pray,
let us sing, let us do our duty to God,
and then we will hasten to the vineyard. When the service was over,
he stood on an eminence and blessed the vineyard and let his own
sheep go to their pasture. Now those who partook were not less than three
thousand. And whereas the whole vineyard had been estimated at a
hundred flagons, within thirty days he made it worth three hundred. The
niggardly brother gathered much less than usual, and he was grieved to find
that even what he had turned to vinegar. The old man had predicted this to
many brethren before it happened. He
particularly abhorred such monks as
were led by their lack of faith to
hoard for the future, and were careful about expense, or raiment, or some other
of those things which pass away with the world.
28. Lastly he
would not even look at one of the brethren who lived about five miles off
because he ascertained that he very jealously guarded his bit of
ground, and had a little money. The offender wishing to be reconciled to the
old man often came to the brethren, and in particular
to Hesychius who was specially dear to Hilarion. One day
accordingly he brought a bundle of green chick-pea just as it
had been gathered. Hesychius placed it on the table against the
evening, whereupon the old man cried out that he could not bear the stench, and
asked where it came from. Hesychius replied that a certain brother
had sent the brethren the first fruits of his ground. Don't you
notice, said he, the horrid stench, and detect the foul odour
of avarice in
the peas? Send it to the cattle, send to the brute-beasts and see whether
they can eat it. No sooner was it in obedience to
his command laid in the manger than the cattle in the wildest alarm
and bellowing loudly broke their fastenings and fled in different directions.
For the old man was enabled by grace to
tell from the odour of bodies and garments, and the things which any one had
touched, by what demon or
with what vice the individual was
distressed.
29.
His sixty-third year found the old man at the head of a grand monastery and
a multitude of resident brethren. There were such crowds of persons constantly
bringing those who suffered from various kinds of sickness or were possessed
of unclean spirits, that the whole circuit of the wilderness was full
of all sorts of people. And as the saint saw all this he wept daily and called
to mind with incredible regret his former mode of life. When one of
the brethren asked him why he was so dejected he replied, I have returned
again to the world and have received my reward in my lifetime. The people
of Palestine and the adjoining province think me of some importance,
and under pretence of a monastery for
the well-ordering of the brethren I have all the apparatus of a paltry life
about me. The brethren, however, kept watch over him and in
particular Hesychius, who had a marvellously devoted affection
and veneration for the old man. After he had spent two years in these
lamentations Aristæneté; the lady of whom we made mention before, as being
then the wife of a prefect though without any of
a prefect's ostentation, came to him intending to pay a
visit to Antony also. He said to her, I should like to go myself
too if I were not kept a prisoner in this monastery,
and if my going could be fruitful. For it is now two days since mankind was
bereaved of him who was so truly a
father to them all. She believed his
word and stayed where she was: and after a few days the news came
that Antony had fallen asleep.
30. Some may wonder at
the miracles he
worked, or his incredible fasting, knowledge,
and humility. Nothing so astonishes me as his power to tread
under foot honour and glory. Bishops, presbyters,
crowds of clergymen and monks,
of Christian matrons
even (a great temptation),
and a rabble from all quarters in town and country
were congregating about him, and even judges and others
holding high positions, that they might receive at his hands the bread or oil
which he had blessed. But he thought of nothing but solitude, so much so
that one day he determined to be gone, and having procured an ass (he
was almost exhausted with fasting and
could scarcely walk) endeavoured to steal away. The news spread far
and wide, and, just as if a public mourning for the desolation
of Palestine were decreed, ten thousand people of various ages
and both sexes came together to prevent his departure. He was unmoved by
entreaties, and striking the sand with his stick kept saying: I will not
make my Lord a deceiver; I cannot look
upon churches overthrown, Christ's altars trodden
down, the blood of my sons poured out. All who were present began to
understand that some secret had been revealed to him which he was
unwilling to confess, but they none the less kept guard over him that he
might not go. He therefore determined, and publicly called all to witness,
that he would take neither food nor drink unless he were released. Only after
seven days was he relieved from his fasting;
when having bidden farewell to numerous friends, he came to Betilium
attended by a countless multitude. There he prevailed upon the crowd to return
and chose as his companions forty monks who
had resources for the journey and were capable of travelling during
fasting-time, that is, after sunset. He then visited the brethren who were in
the neighbouring desert and sojourning at a place called Lychnos, and
after three days came to the castle of Theubatus to
see Dracontius, bishop and confessor,
who was in exile there. The bishop was
beyond measure cheered by the presence of so distinguished a man.
At the end of another three days he set out for Babylon and
arrived there after a hard journey. Then he visited Philo the bishop,
who was also a confessor; for the Emperor Constantius who
favoured the Arian heresy had
transported both of them to those parts. Departing thence he came in three
days to the town Aphroditon. There he met with a deacon Baisanes
who kept dromedaries which were hired, on account of the scarcity of water in
the desert,
to carry travellers who wished to visit Antony. He then made known to
the brethren that the anniversary of
the blessed Antony's decease was at hand, and that he must spend
a whole night in vigil in the very place where the saint had died. So
then after three days journey through the waste and terrible desert they at
length came to a very high mountain, and there found two monks, Isaac and Pelusianus,
the former of whom had been one of Antony's attendants.
31. The occasion seems a
fitting one, since we are on the spot itself, to describe the abode of this
great man. There is a high and rocky mountain extending for about a mile, with
gushing springs among its spurs, the waters of which are partly absorbed
by the sand, partly flow towards the plain and gradually form a
stream shaded on either side by countless palms which lend much pleasantness
and charm to the place. Here the old man might be seen pacing to and
fro with the disciples of blessed Antony.
Here, so they said, Antony himself used to sing, pray,
work, and rest when weary. Those vines and shrubs were planted by his own hand:
that garden bed was his own design. This pool for watering the garden was made
by him after much toil. That hoe was handled by him for many
years. Hilarion would lie upon the saint's bed
and as though it were still warm would affectionately kiss it.
The cell was square, its sides measuring no more than the length of a sleeping
man. Moreover on the lofty mountaintop, the ascent of which was by a
zig-zag path very difficult, were to be seen two cells of the same dimensions,
in which he stayed when he escaped from the crowds of visitors or the company
of his disciples.
These were cut out of the live rock and were only furnished with doors. When
they came to the garden, You see, said Isaac, this garden with
its shrubs and green vegetables; about three years ago it was ravaged by a
troop of wild asses. One of their leaders was hidden by Antony to
stand still while he thrashed the animal's sides with a stick and
wanted to know why
they devoured what they had not sown. And ever afterwards, excepting the water
which they were accustomed to come and drink, they never touched anything, not
a bush or a vegetable. The old man further asked to be shown
his burial place, and they thereupon took him aside; but whether they
showed him the tomb or not is unknown. It is related that the motive for
secrecy was compliance with Antony's orders and to
prevent Pergamius, a very wealthy man
of the district, from removing the saint's body to his house and
erecting a shrine to his memory.
32. Having returned
to Aphroditon and keeping with him only two of the brethren, he
stayed in the neighbouring desert, and practised such
rigid abstinence and silence that he felt that then for the
first time he had begun to serve Christ. Three years had now
elapsed since the heavens had been closed and the land had suffered from
drought, and it was commonly said that even the elements were lamenting the
death of Antony. Hilarion did not remain unknown to the
inhabitants of that place any more than to others, but men and women with ghastly faces
and wasted by hunger earnestly entreated the servant of Christ,
as being the blessed Antony's successor, to give them
rain. Hilarion when he saw them was strangely affected with
compassion and, raising his eyes to heaven and lifting up both his
hands, he at once obtained their petition. But, strange to say, that
parched and sandy district, after the rain had fallen, unexpectedly produced
such vast numbers of serpents and poisonous animals that many who
were bitten would have died at once if they had not run to Hilarion. He
therefore blessed some oil with which all the husbandmen and
shepherds touched their wounds, and found an infallible cure.
33. Seeing that even
there surprising respect was paid to him, he went to Alexandria, intending to cross from
thence to the farther oasis of the desert.
And because he had never stayed in cities since he entered on the monk's life,
he turned aside to some brethren at Bruchium, not far from Alexandria,
whom he knew,
and who welcomed the old man with the greatest pleasure. It was now night when
all at once they heard his disciples saddling
the ass and making ready for the journey. They therefore threw
themselves at his feet and besought him not to leave them; they fell prostrate
before the door, and declared they would rather die than lose such a guest. He
answered: My reason for hastening away is that I may not give
you trouble. You will no doubt afterwards
discover that I have not suddenly left without good cause.
Next day the authorities of Gaza with
the lictors of the prefect having heard of his arrival on
the previous day, entered the monastery,
and when they failed to find him anywhere they began to say to one
another: What we heard is true.
He is a magician and knows the
future. The fact was that the city
of Gaza on Julian's accession to the throne, after the
departure of Hilarion from Palestine and the destruction of
his monastery,
had presented a petition to the Emperor requesting that
both Hilarion and Hesychius might be put
to death, and a proclamation had been published everywhere that search
should be made for them.
34. Having then
left Bruchium, he entered the oasis through the trackless
desert, and there abode for a year, more or less. But, inasmuch as his fame had
travelled there also, he felt that he could not be hidden in the East, where he
was known to
many by report and by sight, and began to think of taking ship for some
solitary island, so that having been exposed to public view by the land, he
might at least find concealment in the sea. Just about
that time Hadrian,
his disciple,
arrived from Palestine with information
that Julian was slain and that a Christian emperor had
commenced his reign; he ought therefore, it was said, to return to
the relics of his monastery.
But he, when he heard this, solemnly refused to return; and hiring a
camel crossed the desert waste
and reached Paretonium, a city on the coast of Libya. There
the ill-starred Hadrian wishing
to return to Palestine and unwilling to part with the renown so long
attaching to his master's name, heaped reproaches upon him, and at
last having packed up the presents which he had brought him from the brethren,
set out without the knowledge of Hilarion.
As I shall have no further opportunity of referring to this man, I would only
record, for the terror of those who despise their masters, that after
a little while he was attacked by the king's-evil and
turned to a mass of corruption.
35. The old man
accompanied by Gazanus went on board a ship which was sailing
to Sicily. Half way
across the Adriatic he was preparing to pay his fare by selling a
copy of the Gospels which
he had written with his own hand in his youth, when the son of the master of
the ship seized by a demon began
to cry out and say: Hilarion, servant of God,
why is it that through you we cannot be safe even on the
sea? Spare me a little until I reach land. Let me not be cast out
here and thrown into the deep. The saint replied: If
my God permit you to remain, remain; but if He casts you out, why
bring odium upon me a sinner and a beggar? This he said that the
sailors and merchants on board might not betray him on reaching shore. Not long
after, the boy was cleansed, his father and the rest who were present having
given their word that they would not reveal the name of the saint to
any one.
36. On
approaching Pachynus, a promontory of Sicily,
he offered the master the Gospel for
the passage of himself and Gazanus. The man was unwilling to take it, all
the more because he saw that excepting that volume and the clothes they wore
they had nothing, and at last he swore he would not take it. But the aged
saint, ardent and confident in the consciousness of his poverty, rejoiced
exceedingly that he had no worldly possessions and was accounted a
beggar by the people of the place.
37. Once more, on
thinking the matter over and fearing that merchants coming
from the East might make him known,
he fled to the interior, some twenty miles from the sea, and there on
an abandoned piece of ground, every day tied up a bundle
of firewood which he laid upon the back of his disciple,
and sold at some neighbouring mansion. They thus supported themselves and were
able to purchase a morsel of bread for any chance visitors. But that came
exactly to pass which is written: Matthew 5:14 a
city set on a hill cannot be hid. It happened that one of the
shields-men who was vexed by a demon was
in the basilica of
the blessed Peter at Rome,
when the unclean spirit within him cried out, A few days
ago Christ's servant Hilarion entered Sicily and
no one knew him,
and he thinks he is hidden. I will go and betray him. Immediately he embarked
with his attendants in a ship lying in harbour, sailed
to Pachynus and, led by the demon to
the old man's hut, there prostrated himself and was cured on the
spot. This, his first miracle in Sicily,
brought the sick to him in countless numbers (but it brought also a multitude
of religious persons);
insomuch that one of the leading men who was swollen with the dropsy
was cured the same day that he came. He afterwards offered the
saint gifts without end, but the saint replied to him in the words of
the Saviour to his disciples: Matthew 10:8 Freely
ye received, freely give.
38. While this was going
on in Sicily Hesychius his disciple was
searching the world over for the old man, traversing the coast, penetrating
deserts, clinging all the while to the belief that wherever he was he
could not long be hidden. At the end of three years he heard at Methona
from a certain Jew, who dealt in old-clothes, that a Christian prophet had
appeared in Sicily,
and was working such miracles and signs,
one might think him one of the ancient saints.
So he asked about his dress, gait, and speech, and in particular his age, but
could learn nothing. His informant merely declared that he had
heard of the man by report. He therefore crossed the Adriatic and
after a prosperous voyage came to Pachynus, where he took up his abode in
a cottage on the shore of the bay, and, on inquiring for tidings of the
old man, discovered by the tale which every one told him where he was, and what
he was doing. Nothing about him surprised them all so much as the fact that
after such great signs and wonders he had not accepted even
a crust of bread from any one in the district. And, to cut my story
short, the holy man Hesychius fell
down at his master's knees and bedewed his feet with tears; at length
he was gently raised by him, and when two or three days had been
spent in talking over matters, he learned from Gazanus that Hilarion no
longer felt himself able to live in those parts, but wanted to go
to certain barbarous races where his name and fame were unknown.
39. He therefore brought
him to Epidaurus, a town in Dalmatia, where he stayed for a few
days in the country near, but could not be hid. An enormous serpent, of the
sort which the people of those parts call boas because they are so
large that they often swallow oxen, was ravaging the whole province far and
wide, and was devouring not only flocks and herds, but husbandmen and shepherds
who were drawn in by the force of its breathing. He ordered a pyre to be
prepared for it, then sent up a prayer to Christ,
called forth the reptile, bade it climb the pile of wood, and then applied the
fire. And so before all the people he burnt the savage beast to ashes. But now
he began anxiously to ask what he was to do, whither to betake himself. Once
more he prepared for flight, and in thought ranged through solitary lands,
grieving that his miracles could
speak of him though his tongue was silent.
40. At
that time there was an earthquake over the whole world, following on
the death of Julian, which caused the sea to burst its bounds,
and left ships hanging on the edge of mountain steeps. It seemed as
though God were threatening a second deluge, or all things were
returning to original chaos. When the people of Epidaurus saw this, I
mean the roaring waves and heaving waters and the swirling
billows mountain-high dashing on the shore, fearing that
what they saw had happened elsewhere might befall them and their town be
utterly destroyed, they made their way to the old man, and as if preparing for
a battle placed him on the shore. After making the sign
of the cross three times on the sand, he faced the sea, stretched out
his hands, and no one would believe to
what a height the swelling sea stood like a wall before him. It roared for a
long time as if indignant at the barrier, then little by little sank
to its level. Epidaurus and all the region roundabout tell
the story to this day, and mothers teach their children to hand down the
remembrance of it to posterity. Verily, what was said to
the Apostles, If you have faith,
you shall say to this mountain, Remove into the sea, and it shall be done, may
be even literally fulfilled, provided one has such faith as
the Lord commanded the Apostles to have. For what
difference does it make whether a mountain descends into the sea, or huge
mountains of waters everywhere else fluid suddenly become hard as rock at the
old man's feet?
41. The whole country
marvelled and the fame of the great miracle was
in everyone's mouth, even at Salonæ;. When the old
man knew this
was the case he escaped secretly by night in a small cutter, and finding a
merchant ship after two days came to Cyprus. Between Malea
and Cythera, the pirates, who had left on the shore that part of their
fleet which is worked by poles instead of sails, bore down on them with two
light vessels of considerable size; and besides this they were buffeted by the
waves on every side. All the rowers began to be alarmed, to weep, to leave
their places, to get out their poles, and, as though one message was not
enough, again and again told the old man that pirates were at hand. Looking at
them in the distance he gently smiled, then turned to his disciples and
said, Matthew 14:32 O
you of little faith,
wherefore do ye doubt?
Are these more than the army of Pharaoh?
Yet they were all drowned by the will of God.
Thus he spoke, but none the less the enemy with foaming prows kept drawing
nearer and were now only a stone's throw distant. He stood upon
the prow of the vessel facing them with out-stretched hand, and
said, Thus far and no farther. Marvellous to relate, the boats
at once bounded back, and though urged forward by the oars fell farther and
farther astern. The pirates were astonished to find themselves going back,
and laboured with all their strength to reach the vessel, but were carried to
the shore faster by far than they came.
42. I pass by the rest
for fear I
should seem in my history to be publishing a volume of miracles.
I will only say this, that when sailing with a fair wind among
the Cyclades he heard the voices
of unclean spirits shouting in all directions from towns
and villages, and running in crowds to the shore. Having then
entered Paphos, the city of Cyprus renowned
in the songs of the poets, the ruins of whose temples after frequent
earthquakes are the only evidences at the present day of its former grandeur,
he began to live in obscurity about two miles from the city, and rejoiced in
having a few days rest. But not quite twenty days passed before throughout the
whole island whoever had unclean spirits began to cry out
that Hilarion Christ's servant had come, and that they must go
to him with all speed. Salamis, Curium, Lapetha, and the other
cities joined in the cry, while many declared that they knew Hilarion and
that he was indeed the servant of Christ,
but where he was they could not tell. So within a trifle more than thirty days,
about two hundred people, both men and women,
came together to him. When he saw them he lamented that they would not suffer
him to be quiet, and thirsting in a kind of manner to avenge himself, he lashed
them with such urgency of prayer that
some immediately, others after two or three days, all within a week, were
cured.
43. Here he stayed two
years, always thinking of flight, and in the meantime sent Hesychius, who
was to return in the spring, to Palestine to salute the brethren and
visit the ashes of his monastery.
When the latter returned he found Hilarion longing to sail again
to Egypt,
that is to the locality called Bucolia; but he persuaded him that, since
there were no Christians there,
but only a fierce and barbarous people, he should rather go to a spot in Cyprus itself
which was higher up and more retired. After long and diligent search he found
such a place twelve miles from the sea far off among the recesses of rugged
mountains, the ascent to which could hardly be accomplished by creeping on
hands and knees. Thither he conducted him. The old man entered and
gazed around. It was indeed a lonely and terrible place; for though surrounded
by trees on every side, with water streaming from the brow of the hill, a
delightful bit of garden, and fruit-trees in abundance (of which,
however, he never ate), yet it had close by the ruins of an
ancient temple from which, as he himself was wont to relate and
his disciples testify,
the voices of such countless demons re-echoed night
and day, that you might have thought there was an army of them. He was highly
pleased at the idea of having his opponents in the neighbourhood, and
abode there five years, cheered in these his last days by the frequent visits
of Hesychius, for owing to the steep and rugged ascent, and the numerous
ghosts (so the story ran), nobody or scarcely anybody either could or dared to
go up to him. One day, however, as he was leaving his garden, he saw a man
completely paralysed lying in front of the gates. He
asked Hesychius who he was, or how he had been
brought. Hesychius replied that he was the agent at the country-house
to which the garden belonged in which they were located. Weeping much
and stretching out his hand to the prostrate man he said, I bid you in the
name of our
Lord Jesus Christ arise and walk. The words were still on the lips of
the speaker, when, with miraculous speed, the limbs were strengthened
and the man arose and stood firm. Once this was noised abroad the need of many
overcame even the pathless journey and the dangers of the place.
The occupants of all the houses round about had nothing so much in
their thoughts as to prevent the possibility of his escape, a rumour having
spread concerning him to the effect that he could not stay long in the same
place. This habit of his was not due to levity or childishness, but
to the fact that he shunned the worry of publicity and praise, and always
longed for silence and a life of obscurity.
44. In
his eightieth year, during the absence of Hesychius, he wrote by
way of a will a short letter with his own hand, and left him all
his riches (that is to say, a copy of the gospels,
and his sack-cloth tunic, cowl and cloak), for his servant
had died a few days before. Many devout men therefore came to the
invalid from Paphos, and specially because they had heard of his saying
that he must soon migrate to the Lord and must be liberated from the
bonds of the body. There came also Constantia a holy woman whose
son-in-law and daughter he had anointed with oil
and saved from death. He earnestly entreated them all not to let him
be kept even a moment of time after death, but to bury him
immediately in the same garden, just as he was, clad in his
goat-hair tunic, cowl, and his peasant's cloak.
45. His body was now all
but cold, and nought was left of life but reason. Yet with eyes wide open
he kept repeating, Go forth, what do you fear?
Go forth, my soul,
why do you hesitate? You have served Christ nearly seventy years, and
do you fear death?
Thus saying he breathed his last. He was immediately buried before
the city heard of his death.
46. When the holy man Hesychius heard
of his decease, he went to Cyprus and,
to lull the suspicions of the natives who were keeping strict guard,
pretended that he wished to live in the same garden, and then in the course of
about ten months, though at great peril to
his life, stole the saint's body. He carried it
to Majuma; and there all the monks and
crowds of towns-folk going in procession laid it to rest in the ancient monastery.
His tunic, cowl and cloak, were uninjured; the whole body
as perfect as if alive, and so fragrant with sweet odours that one
might suppose it to have been embalmed.
47. In bringing my book
to an end I think I ought not to omit to mention the devotion of
the holy woman Constantia
who, when a message was brought her that Hilarion's body was
in Palestine, immediately died, proving even by death the
sincerity of her love for
the servant of God.
For she was accustomed to spend whole nights in vigil at his tomb,
and to converse with him as if he were present in order to stimulate her prayers.
Even at the present day one may see a strange dispute between the people
of Palestine and the Cypriotes, the one contending that they
have the body, the other the spirit of Hilarion. And yet in both
places great miracles are
wrought daily, but to a greater extent in the garden of Cyprus,
perhaps because that spot was dearest to him.
Translated by W.H. Fremantle, G. Lewis and W.G. Martley. From Nicene
and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, Vol. 6. Edited by Philip
Schaff and Henry Wace. (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing
Co., 1893.) Revised and edited for New Advent by Kevin
Knight. <http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/3003.htm>.
SOURCE : http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/3003.htm
Chapel
of Saint Hilarion in Barangay Hilera, Jaen, Nueva
Ecija, Philippines
Weninger’s
Lives of the Saints – Saint Hilarion, Abbot
The Roman Martyrology
mentions today, Saint Hilarion, whose life was written by Saint Jerome. He was
born, in the year 288, at Tabatha, near Gaza in Palestine, of heathen parents.
While still a boy, he was sent to Alexandria to study. Making the acquaintance
of some Christians, he became converted, and from that hour, he was no more
seen at the theatres of the heathens, but only in the assemblies of the faithful.
His conduct was so blameless and edifying, that it put many, though born in
Christianity, to shame. At that time, the austere and holy life led by Saint
Antony in the deserts of Egypt, was much spoken of. Hilarion was filled with
the desire to see this holy man, and to learn from him how to become a Saint.
Hence he went to him, observed carefully all his actions, and endeavored to
follow in his footsteps. Having passed two months under so famous a teacher, he
acquainted him with his wish to lead a solitary life and to serve God in a
desert. Antony, praising his desire, gave him some wholesome instructions in
regard to it, and then dismissed him. Hilarion returned to his native place,
and as his parents had meanwhile died, he gave to the poor the large fortune
which he had inherited, and went to a desert in Egypt, a mile and a half from
Majuma. Here he began, though only 15 years of age, the austere life which he
continued until his death. He was clothed in a coarse tunic and a poor cloak,
which Saint Antony had given him, and his sustenance was some figs, a handful
of lentils, or some roots, of which, however, he partook not until after
sun-down. His bed was the ground covered with matting. He divided the day
between work and prayer, and the hut in which he lived was more like a tomb
than the dwelling of a living being. It is indescribable how much he had to
suffer from the temptations and persecutions of evil spirits. They appeared to
him in the most terrible forms, and disturbed him in all possible ways.
Hilarion, however, was not to be frightened, but armed himself against these
enemies, by calling upon the most holy name of Jesus, by praying and by
fasting. Fighting valiantly, he always conquered. He addressed his body, which
seemed to have evil desires, thus: “Wait awhile, you fool! I will cure you of
your mischief. I will take care that every thought of pleasure shall leave
you.” After which he began to mortify himself so long by severe fasting,
scourging and watching, that every disorderly wish expired. At the instigation
of Satan, some murderers one day attacked him, and endeavored to drive him
away. They asked him what he would do in case robbers should come to him. He
answered: “They who possess nothing, do not fear them.” “But they may take your
life,” said they. Hilarion replied: “Of course they can do so; but for that
very reason I do not fear them, because I am daily prepared to die.” After the
holy man had already passed 22 years of his life in this desert, Gcd desired to
make him known to the world by miracles. A noble lady of Gaza having heard of
the holy hermit, came to him and begged him, with tears in her eyes, to go to
her house and visit her three sons who were mortally sick. The Saint refused to
comply with her request; but the mother ceased not to weep and entreat him
until he had promised to come during the night, which accordingly he did.
Saying a short prayer, he laid his hand upon the children, and all three rose
from their beds in perfect health. Hardly had this become known in the city,
when several sick were carried to him that he might cure them. The Saint, by
healing all of them, converted a great many heathens to the true faith. Many
also came to him who desired to live piously, and to lead, under his guidance,
a solitary life. At that time, there was no cloister of hermits to be found in
all Palestine, and it was Hilarion who there became the first father of the
hermits, as Saint Antony had been in Egypt. The number of those who lived in
obedience to Hilarion increased in a few years to 3000. He prescribed certain
rules to them, and kept them all under his care. Meanwhile he continued,
through the power of God, to perform many miracles on the blind, the lame and
other infirm, but especially on the possessed, of whom he delivered a great
number. Among others, a girl was brought to him, whom a youth, who loved her,
had, by magic, thrown under the power of the devil. When the holy man began the
exorcism, the evil spirit howled and roared in a horrible way, and was heard to
say: “It was not my fault. I was forced into her.” The Saint said: “Why did you
not rather take possession of the youth? “What should I do there?” replied the
devil; “he already carries the devil of love in his bosom.” Hilarion commanded
him to depart, and he was forced to obey. The maiden, however, received a sharp
rebuke from the Saint, because she had not guarded herself sufficiently against
danger. At another time, a furious camel, that had killed a great number of
people, was brought to him. The Saint commanded them to let the camel loose,
and going fearlessly towards it, he stretched forth his hand and said: “Thou
wicked spirit of damnation, you cannot frighten me; whether you appearest in
the form of a small fox, or a huge camel, you art always only a little devil.”
The animal ran towards the Saint, full of rage, as if it would tear him in
pieces; but when quite near him, it fell dead upon the ground. All present were
greatly astonished, but the Saint taught them to meet the Evil One fearlessly,
because he is weak in himself, and can harm no one who opposes him with
courage. These and other similar miracles caused a great concourse of people
constantly to stream to the dwelling of the Saint, who was greatly saddened by
it and wept bitterly. Being asked the cause of his grief, he answered: “Ah! my
solitude is lost; I am again in the world; I fear that it will be said to me,
one day: Thou hast already received thy reward.” He then determined to seek
another place, where he might serve God more quietly. He believed he had found
it in a desert of Upper Egypt, whither he had gone accompanied by a few of his
disciples. That district had suffered greatly for 30 years from drought, which
had been followed by a dreadful famine; and the inhabitants all came flocking
around him, entreating him to pray that God would have mercy on them. Hardly
had the Saint commenced to pray, when the Almighty sent down the long-wished
for and fruitful rain. The people all came to thank the Saint, bringing with
them their sick, that God might restore their health by Hilarion’s
intercession. This induced him again to flee. Having arrived at the sea-shore,
he went on board of a ship, which carried him to Sicily, where he concealed
himself in a dark forest. But here also he soon became known, by means of
persons possessed by the devil. As the people again flocked to him, asking for
help, he went to Dalmatia, and concealed himself for a time at Epidaurus. But
when an earthquake rent the ground, and the sea began to encroach upon the
land, as if God were about to punish the world with another flood, the
inhabitants came to the Saint, led him to the sea-shore, and begged him to
prevent the evil which Weis threatening their lives. The Saint made the sign of
the cross three times in the sand, and behold! the waves, though mountain-high,
overstepped not the place which he had marked. When the Saint perceived that
this miracle had become known, he hastened away and came to the island of
Cyprus, where he served the Almighty with as much zeal as though he had just
begun his pious career. He was in his eightieth year when God called him to his
eternal home by a happy death.
Memorable are the words
which he spoke to his soul, shortly before his end, when he was assailed by a
slight fear: “Go forth my soul,” said he, “go forth. Why art you afraid? Thou
hast served the Lord nearly three score and ten years, and fear you death?”
Practical Considerations
• Did you notice how
fearless Hilarion showed himself when the Evil Spirits visibly appeared to him,
and assailed him with violent temptations? Follow his example, and become not
despondent under temptations, but resist bravely and fearlessly. Satan cannot
do violence to you. Notice also the answer of the devil when he was asked why
he had not gone into the body of the unchaste youth. Learn from it that the
devil lives in the body of the unchaste, as Christ has His dwelling in the body
of the chaste. Who lives in your soul and in your body? Remember, also, how
Saint Hilarion encouraged himself in his last hour, when he was troubled with
fear at the thought of appearing before the Almighty. Those who can say, at the
end of their life, that they have faithfully served God, will neither tremble
nor be afraid, or they will, like Saint Hilarion, soon recover from their fear.
But how will it be with those who cannot say that they have faithfully served
God, but only that they have often and most grievously offended Him, and are
not reconciled to Him by true penance? Will you be able to exclaim, on your
death-bed, with Saint Hilarion: “Go forth, my soul, go forth. Fear not; you
hast served the Lord, thy God, so many years; fear not.” Indeed, fear not,
provided you have served the Lord in virtue and piety; but if, instead, you
have served the devil by vice and sin, how then will you speak in your last
hour? Oh! be on your guard that you may not experience it to your own eternal
loss.
MLA
Citation
Father Francis Xavier Weninger,
DD, SJ. “Saint Hilarion, Abbot”. Lives of the
Saints, 1876. CatholicSaints.Info.
20 May 2018. Web. 9 December 2025. <https://catholicsaints.info/weningers-lives-of-the-saints-saint-hilarion-abbot/>
SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/weningers-lives-of-the-saints-saint-hilarion-abbot/
Pictorial
Lives of the Saints – Saint Hilarion, Abbot
Saint
Hilarion was born of heathen parents, near Gaza, and was converted while
studying grammar in Alexandria. Shortly after, he visited Saint Antony, and,
still only in his fifteenth year, he became a solitary in the Arabian desert. A
multitude of monks, attracted by his sanctity, peopled the desert where he
lived. In consequence of this, he fled from one country to another, seeking to
escape the praise of men; but everywhere his miracles of mercy betrayed his
presence. Even his last retreat at Cyprus was broken by a paralytic, who was
cured by Saint Hilarion, and then spread the fame of the Saint. He died with
the words, “Go forth, my soul; why dost thou doubt? Nigh seventy years hast
thou served God, and dost thou fear death?”
SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/pictorial-lives-of-the-saints-saint-hilarion-abbot/
A Garner of
Saints – Saint Hilarion
Born at Thabatha, about
five miles from Gaza, in 291,
of heathen parents. Being sent to Alexandria when a boy he was converted and
became animated by a desire to see Saint Anthony. Accordingly he sought out the
renowned hermit and lived with him in the wildemess for two months. His parents
being dead he returned home and divided the inheritance between his brother and
the poor. Although only fifteen and very frail and delicate, he again retired
to the desert wearing sackcloth and a robe of skin given him by Anthony, and
here he ate no more than fifteen figs daily. As he advanced in age Satan
attacked him through his desires, but he determined to beat down the devil by
fasting, praying, and singing psalms. He further employed himself by digging
and making baskets with bulrushes. One night he thought he heard the crying of
infants, the bleating of sheep, the lowing of cattle, the weeping of women, the
tramp of armed men, and other portents; but he recognised all this as the work
of the devil, and making the sign of the cross on his forehead waited what
would happen. On a sudden a chariot and horses dashed upon him, but as he
called on Jesus it all disappeared. Many other temptations were laid for him by
the devil, who once leaped upon his back and spurred his sides, beating his
neck with a scourge. From his sixteenth to his twentieth year Hilarion
inhabited a hut made of bulrushes and sedge, but afterwards he built a small
cell, and continued to practise the strictest abstinence. After he had passed
twenty-two years of solitude, and had acquired a great reputation throughout
Palestine, he was visited by a woman who had been married for fifteen years
without issue. Learning the cause of her visit he bade her have faith, and
after a year she brought forth a son. A woman who had been blind for ten years
was brought to him, and when he saw her he exclaimed, “If you had given to the
poor what you have thrown away upon physicians, the true physician would have
healed you.” However, he had pity on her, and spitting in her eyes restored her
sight. Orion, a rich man, but so terribly possessed by devils that it was
necessary to load him with chains, was brought to him, and while there he broke
loose to the terror of all. Hilarion, however, smiled, and drawing the man
towards him caused the devils to depart out of him, which they did, making a
great tumult. His fame continually increasing, great multitudes flocked to see
him, but as he desired above all things to have solitude he resolved to leave
his cell. After much journeying he reached the lofty mountain which Anthony had
inhabited and found two monks there. After visiting Anthony’s cell he retumed
to Aphroditopolis and settled in the neighbouring desert. But still fearing
publicity and desiring to go to some place where he was unknown, Hilarion was
taken by a disciple to Epidaurus, a city of Dalmatia. But even here he could
not be hid. A great dragon was laying waste the province and his aid was
requested. Hilarion prepared a funeral pile, and after he had prayed he
commanded the dragon to mount on to it. Upon this being done Hilarion set fire
to the pile and the dragon was consumed. While Hilarion was meditating another
flight, an earthquake took place and caused the sea to forsake its bounds. Then
the natives of Epidaurus took the old man and placed him on the shore, for they
feared that the waves would destroy the city. But when Hilarion had drawn three
crosses on the sand and stretched out his hand towards the sea, it towered over
him, but gradually subsided to its bed. The miracle being noised abroad
Hilarion fled to Cyprus. On the way they were chased by pirates, but Hilarion
encouraged those who were with him, and though the pirates came close up to
them theycould not take them, and their vessel was carried away from its
expected prey. Hilarion then went to dwell in the desert in the interior of the
island of Paphos, and being very old he wrote an epistle to his disciple
Hesychius, and prepared for death. Before his departure he was visited by many
holy men and a devout woman named Constantia. After his death they buried him
there, but Hesychius came and stole away the body. 21st
October.
Attribute
Hermit forcing dragon to
cast itself on the fire.
MLA
Citation
Allen Banks Hinds, M.A.
“”. A Garner of Saints, 1900. CatholicSaints.Info.
19 April 2017. Web. 9 December 2025.
<https://catholicsaints.info/a-garner-of-saints-saint-hilarion/>
SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/a-garner-of-saints-saint-hilarion/
Venerable Hilarion the
Great
Commemorated on October 21
Saint Hilarion the Great
was born to pagan parents in the year 291 in the Palestinian village of
Thabatha near Gaza. As a young man, he was sent to Alexandria for his
education. There he became acquainted with Christianity and was baptized. After
hearing an account of the angelic life of Saint Anthony the Great (January 17),
Hilarion went to meet him, desiring to study with him and learn what is
pleasing to God. Hilarion soon returned to his native land to find that his
parents had died. After distributing his family’s inheritance to the poor,
Saint Hilarion went forth into the desert surrounding the city of Maium.
In the desert the Saint
endured violent struggles with impure thoughts, vexations of the mind, and the
burning passions of the flesh, but he defeated them through heavy labor,
fasting and fervent prayer. The devil sought to frighten him with phantoms and
apparitions. While he was praying Saint Hilarion would sometimes hear children
crying, women wailing, and the roaring of lions and other wild beasts. He
understood that the demons were causing these terrors in order to drive him out
of the wilderness. He overcame his fear by resorting to fervent prayer. Once,
some thieves fell upon Saint Hilarion, and he persuaded them to forsake their
lawless life by the power of his words.
Soon all of Palestine
heard about Saint Hilarion and of the miracles he worked. The Lord granted the
holy ascetic the power to cast out unclean spirits. With this gift of grace he
loosed the bonds of many of those who were afflicted. The sick came for
healing, and the Saint cured them without asking for any payment, saying that
the grace of God is freely received, and must be freely given (Matthew 10:8).
Such was the grace that
he received from God that he could tell by the smell of someone’s body or
clothing which passion was afflicting his soul. They came to Saint Hilarion
desiring to save their souls under his guidance. With his blessing, monasteries
began to spring up throughout Palestine. Going from one monastery to another, he
instituted a strict ascetic manner of life.
About seven years before
his death (+ 371-372) Saint Hilarion moved back to Cyprus, where the ascetic
lived in a solitary place until the Lord summoned him to Himself.
Saint Hilarion is
sometimes depicted holding a scroll which reads: "The tools of a monk are
steadfastness, humility, and love according to God." In iconography, is
depicted as an old man with a brown, rush-like beard divided into three points.
SOURCE : https://www.oca.org/saints/lives/2025/10/21/103009-venerable-hilarion-the-great
136.
St. Hilarion. The 140 Saints of the Colonnade. St. Hilarion
Born – 291. Died - 371 in Cyprus. Feastday - 21 October. Statue created -
c.1662-1667
The statue is part of the group of 24 that were installed between September
1662 and March 1667. Sculptor – unknown. The work is not attributable to any
other sculptors who made statues for this area. The quality, above mediocre,
is akin to two other statues in this area - St Jerome (137) and St Theobald
(139). Height - 3.1 m. (10ft 4in) travertine He is depicted according to
tradition, with a beard and wrapped in large drapery. He holds his robe with
his right hand, while the left hand is open and stretched forward. St.
Hilarion was from Gaza in the Holy Land, and became a disciple of St Anthony
while studying at Alexandria in Egypt. He then became a monastic hermet
near Gaza, and founded several monasteries with the disciples whom he
attracted. According to St Jerome, who wrote his biography, he did much
journeying in the latter part of his life. SOURCE :
https://stpetersbasilica.info/Exterior/Colonnades/Saints/St%20Hilarion-136/StHilarion.htm
Sant' Ilarione di
Gaza Abate
Festa: 21 ottobre
Tabata, Palestina, 291
circa - Pafo, Cipro, 372
Nacque da genitori pagani
verso il 291, a Tabata, piccola città della Palestina. Fu mandato ad
Alessandria d'Egitto per compiere gli studi. Si distinse da subito grazie a un
ingegno particolarmente vivo e un'integrità morale che applicò con maggior
fervore dopo la conversione al cristianesimo. Abbandonata l'opulenta città
egiziana si ritirò in Tebaide presso sant'Antonio abate. Nel 307, però, fece ritorno
alla casa paterna dove venne a conoscenza della morte dei genitori. Decise così
di donare parte dei suoi beni ai fratelli e parte ai poveri e di ritirarsi
definitivamente a Maiumma, in Palestina, zona frequentata da malviventi. I suoi
giorni era divisi tra la preghiera, lo studio delle Scritture e il lavoro
manuale. Nonostante la rigidità delle condizioni di vita che si impose arrivò
all'età di 80 anni. Morì a Pafo, nel 372. Il suo corpo fu riportato al
monastero di Maiumma dal discepolo Eusebio.
Etimologia: Ilarione
= gaio, allegro, dal latino
Martirologio
Romano: Nell’isola di Cipro, sant’Ilarione, abate, che, seguendo le orme
di sant’Antonio, dapprima condusse vita solitaria vicino a Gaza e fu poi
fondatore e modello di vita eremitica in questa provincia.
Questo santo eremita nacque da genitori pagani verso il 291, a Tabata, piccola città della Palestina. Fu mandato ancor fanciullo ad Alessandria d’Egitto per compiere gli studi, e si distinse per vivacità d’ingegno e integrità di costumi. Rapidi furono i progressi nelle scienze umane: non meno rapido fu l’avanzamento nella pratica delle cristiane virtù, allorchè conosciuta la vera religione si convertì al Cristianesimo.
Avido di udire la divina parola, fu sempre sollecito nell’intervenire alla sacra predicazione e nell’assistere ai divini uffici. Nauseato della vita licenziosa in Alessandria e mosso dall’ardente desiderio della perfezione cristiana, abbandonò quella città per recarsi in Tebaide presso S. Antonio abate.
Fu a quella scuola che apprese vivo amore alla solitudine, all’orazione e alla penitenza. Ma il grande concorso delle persone che venivano ad Antonio per ammirarne la santità o riceverne consiglio presto lo annoiò; sicchè, abbandonato quel luogo nel 307, fece ritorno al tetto paterno, dove, con suo profondo dolore apprese della morte degli amati genitori. Privo ormai d’ogni umano conforto si abbandonò totalmente nelle mani della Divina Provvidenza e donata parte dei suoi beni ai fratelli e parte ai poveri, lasciò definitivamente la casa paterna, per ritirarsi a Maiumma, luogo solitario della Palestina.
L’ardore con cui si diede alla vita monastica, cambiò quel deserto che fin allora aveva servito di covo agli assassini, in un’oasi di santi uomini, che da lui diretti, eressero diversi monasteri. Interrogato una volta il Santo da alcuni malviventi sul come si sarebbe comportato qualora i ladri l’avessero assalito, rispose: “Un uomo povero e nudo non teme i ladri”. “Ma ti potrebbero togliere la vita” soggiunsero. “Questo è vero, replicò il Santo, ma io non temo la morte, perchè sono sempre apparecchiato a ben morire”.
Mirabilmente soggiogò le sue passioni con la preghiera e con le continue e aspre penitenze, riducendo all'ubbidienza della volontà il corpo ribelle. Spendeva i suoi giorni unicamente nel servizio del Signore, alternando la preghiera e la contemplazione con lo studio delle Sacre Scritture e il lavoro manuale. Vestì molto poveramente e si cibò sempre di erbe e di pochi fichi: solo negli ultimi mesi fu costretto a prendere un po’ di minestra. Nonostante le macerazioni e le mortificazioni che infliggeva al suo corpo, toccò la bell'età di 80 anni.
Scrive S. Girolamo che prima di rendere l'anima a Dio, il vecchio steso in terra su di una rude stuoia, sorpreso dal timore del giudizio, andasse ripetendo a se stesso: “Di che temi o anima mia? Perchè ti conturbi se per quasi settant’anni hai servito il tuo Signore?”.
A Pafo, nel 372, il Signore lo chiamò a ricevere il premio. Il suo corpo glorioso fu dal discepolo Eusebio riportato al monastero di Maiumma.
Autore: Antonio Galuzzi
SOURCE : https://www.santiebeati.it/dettaglio/74650
Vie de saint Hilarion.
Oeuvres de saint Jérôme, publiées par M. Benoit Matougues, sous la direction de
M. L. Aimé-Martin. Paris, Auguste Desrez,Imprimeur-editeur. Rue Neuve
Des-Petits-Champs, n°50. MDCCCXXXVIII : http://abbaye-saint-benoit.ch/saints/jerome/mystiques/021.htm
